Show new machine gun can shoot 1200 a minute improved back plate new type of recoil mechanism solve knotty problems A new ultra speed 50 caliber machine gun has been perfected by the engineering department of frig division of general motors corporation po ration in collaboration with the office of the chief of ordnance U S army the new gun already tested in combat spews skews out 50 caliber slugs at the exceptionally high rate of 1200 a minute 20 shots a second this is 50 per cent faster than the 50 caliber guns now in use this ultra rapid fire literally sprays bullets from a single gun but there is nothing spray like in the w way ay these bullets hit some idea of this can be had from the fact that if the can be 14 50 caliber guns on a B 25 bomber were of this new type it could shoot of them in a short burst of one second the present 50 caliber gun now in use all over the world is the basic weapon of the air corps gen H H arnold has said the very low mortality rate among our bombers can be largely credited to this gun maj gen L H campbell jr of army ordnance has stated that 50 caliber machine guns account for foi over 90 per cent of all aircraft firepower fire power from this it is quickly understandable what this increased firing rate will mean in annihilating japs destroying their aircraft and damaging rail yards supply dumps factories of all kinds and oil and gasoline storage depots development began in 1918 As the first world war neared its close the need became apparent for a machine gun having more striking power than the 30 caliber guns then in general use at that time the development of a 50 caliber machine gun was started in august 1918 the first 50 caliber machine gun was completed this gun fired at the then considered fast rate of rounds per minute by june 1923 a 50 caliber machine machin fr gun acceptable to the army was finally produced and standardized these guns were used by the army on tanks armored cars and other heavy mobile field equipment they were also used as antiaircraft anti aircraft weapons and V c r 1 9 above side view of the new model 50 caliber machine gun for aircraft it can fire at the rate of 1200 bullets a minute or 20 per second below shows the nose of a B 25 bomber armed with eight 50 caliber machine guns crewmen are inserting the long bands of ammunition 0 0 FYI I 1 A to some extent they were used as armament on airplanes later improvements prove ments in this gun raised the firing rate to rounds per minute then came the present war and the use of the 50 caliber gun on combat airplanes in ever increasing numbers and just as we thought we had the answer the speed and performance of the aircraft started climbing at a tremendous rate and the rounds per minute gun was not the whole answer any more we needed guns to hit with more bullets in that split second of time when the gunner had the enemy in his gun sight ordnance answered the k need by stepping up the 50 caliber machine gun to more than rounds per minute here then after years ot of development was a 50 caliber machine gun to delight the heart of any gunner but was this enough evidently not the united states army knew that eventually the enemy would produce a weapon equal to and maybe even superior to the now famous 50 what did they think would be needed why an even faster firing 50 caliber of course success at last first experiments on the n new ew pro project were just like all others very disheartening the old immutable laws of physics force friction weight and thrust laughed at the haggard engineers it just be done nature would not be defied but one man still working on the improvement of the standard 50 caliber discovered a new way to design and attach the back plate this was found to be exactly what was needed to withstand the pounding of the recoil 1200 times a minute for the new gun another man looking for a better method of cushioning the recoil tried belleville spring washers and found that they improved the shock absorption so well that they too were exactly what was needed for the new gun and they completely eliminated the bugaboo bug a boo of an oil cylinder shock absorber which while standard was always troublesome so if nothing else happened the present 50 already hail had been greatly improved and some measure of progress on the new gun had been made but the real test would come in the innards where more than parts would have to take and stand up under 20 explosions per second in august of 1944 just 15 months later two ultra speed 50 caliber machine guns were ready for testing they worked immediately more guns were made they too worked the army was elated for this new gun provided an increase in fire pow er equivalent to adding half again as many fighter planes surely hirohito is going to need more than a white horse and the japanese war lord will have to dream up something more potent than fourth of july balloons to compete with this kind of yankee ingenuity ity |