GB152368A - Improvements in and relating to machine gun mountings - Google Patents

Abstract

152,368. Scarff, F. W. Jan. 11, 1918. Mountings for use on aircraft; field carriages.- Relates to aircraft and vehicle mountings of the kind in which a machine gun is mounted on an elevating arm pivoted to an horizontallyrotatable ring. According to the invention, the elevating-arm and the rotatable ring are looked in their adjusted positions by devices which are actuated simultaneously, or in succession, to effect unlocking by a single control wire operated by a handle on the elevating-arm. When operated in succession, the ring is released before the elevating arm. A socket is provided in the arm for a carrier for a single gun, or a carrier for two connected guns; or two sockets may be provided for the two connected guns. Elastic cords balance the turning moment in a vertical plane due to the weight of the elevating-arm. and the parts carried thereby. The rotatable ring is mounted on ball or roller bearings. Fig. 1 is a sectional plan of part of one form of the mounting. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same part. Fig. 9 shows the operating handle 16 and control wire 19 for the locking devices. The U-shaped elevating-arm 7 is pivoted at 6 to brackets 4 on the ring 2, which is rotatable by hand on one or more sets of rollers 3 on a fixed ring 1. Spring- pressed bolts 26 lock the ring 2 to the ring 1, and locking pins 9 carried by longitudinal rods 23 in the sides of the elevating-arm engage with notched segments 8 extending upwards from the sides of the ring 2. Alternatively, the segments may extend downwardly from the sides of the elevating-arm and the locking members be mounted on the ring 2 in such manner as to be actuated by the control wire 19. The wire passes at its centre over two fixed pulleys 17, mounted in the elevating-arm adjacent to the gun-carrier socket 30, and around a movable pulley 18 carried by the pivoted operating handle 16. The two ends of the wire are connected to lugs 22 on the sliding rods 23, the lugs being also jointed to bellcranks 24, the lower arms of which operate the locking bolts 26. The gun carrier 31 mounted in the socket 30 is arranged to allow universal movement of the gun relatively to the elevating- arm. When two guns are carried, they are adjustably inter-connected by a readily detachable rear connexion so that they are maintained parallel, but are universally-movable relatively to the elevating-arm. The elastic balancing cords 11 pass over brackets 10 on the segments 8, around pulleys 12 on the elevating-arm, below grooved guides 13 concentric with the pivots 6, and beneath guide-plates 14 on the brackets 4. According to the Provisional Specification, the rotatable ring may also be within the fixed ring, and be rotated by gearing, and the U-shaped elevating-arm may be substituted by a frame hinged on a tube forming a chord of the rotatable ring. A wind-balancing device is also described comprising a wind vane driving gearing which tends to rotate the rotatable ring with a force equal and opposite to that due to the windpressure acting on the mounting.