Frederick William Lanchester

“ Machine-Guns Multiply Mounted. In view of the advantages of rapid fire, it would seem desirable to increase the speed of fire of the machine-gun to the maximum extent possible. When, on land, the obvious thing to do under similar circumstances would be to bring two guns into action, a similar course is not possible on a flying machine, owing to the weight of the additional gunner. An extra man must either mean the sacrifice of a couple of thousand rounds of ammunition or a couple of hours' petrol supply, neither of which alternatives can be entertained. ”

“ The usual manner of employing such a weapon on a moving target, as presented by an aeroplane in flight, is to fire by "bursts," each burst being sighted afresh and commonly consisting of some six or eight shots, so that the speed of fire never averages as high as that of which the gun is capable; thus the supply of ammunition above given would be sufficient for a continuous and hot engagement of about a quarter of an hour's duration. From the point of view of recoil the machine-gun is quite harmless ”

“ For the time being we will take the restrictions imposed by international agreement as though they were restrictions imposed by Nature, and accept the fact that for the throwing of explosive or inflammable projectiles the "one-pounder" is the smallest gun available. At present this offers considerable difficulty in the case of an aeroplane. In order to throw a 14 oz, projectile with a muzzle velocity of 1,700 ft.-sec, the weight of gun and its mountings, including suitable recoil mechanism, could not be much less than 1 cwt., and with 100 rounds of ammunition the total would be about 21⁄2 cwt. ”

“ But it is by no means clear that it will require to be armed more heavily than may be sufficient to hold its own with the aircraft of the enemy engaged on similar duty, or than required to enable it to perform the minor acts of aggression against the enemy's land forces that fall to its lot. ”

“ Light artillery may certainly be mounted on an aeroplane, but only the very smallest calibre—namely, the "1-pounder"—can be considered suitable for machines such as are built at the present day; even the mounting of a gun of this size is a matter of great difficulty. The only advantage obtained by the employment of a weapon of this character is in the fact that it is permissible to throw shell, high-explosive or otherwise, the use of which for smaller sizes of projectiles is prohibited by treaty obligation. ”

“ But the difficulties of design are not confined to the weight problem; the gun would have a length from muzzle to breech of 4 ft, or 5 ft., in addition to about 1 ft, representing its movement on recoil, as permitted by the buffer mechanism. To accommodate such a weapon, with reasonable freedom in elevation and traverse, would almost require that the gun be designed first, and that the aeroplane be designed round it. The difficulties can only be properly appreciated by taking a drawing-board and paper and endeavouring to find a practicable solution. ”

“ It has already been remarked that attack on so swift and, in effect, on so small a moving target as an aeroplane is by no means an easy problem. We have already discussed the difficulties of attack from the ground, and it now remains to examine the problem of attack by air—i.e., attack by aeroplane on aeroplane. ”

“ There seems to be no proper reason why we should be compelled to use some hundreds of unsuitable projectiles, specially designed to afford the least possible injury to the struts, spars, etc., through which they pass, when a comparatively few expanding or explosive bullets would do vastly more injury, and result in a machine being incapacitated both in less time and at less expense. It cannot be supposed that if one of the nations at present at war were to inaugurate the practice of utilising, against aircraft, projectiles infringing the Declaration of St. ”

“ Intelligent anticipation is the usual designation. ↑ The signatories to this Declaration include representatives of the following:—Great Britain. Austria and Hungary. Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey. ”