US2182868A - Shielded flexible gun mount and ammunition container therefor - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 12, 1939. I J FMHABERUN I 2,182,868

SHIELDED FLEXIBLE GUN MOUNT AND AMMUNITION CONTAINER THEREFOR Filed Jan. 11, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Zinmmtor Dec. 12, 1939. F HA ERUN 2,182,868

SHIELDED FLEXIBLE GUN MOUNT AND AMMUNITION CONTAINER THEREFOR Filed Jan. 11, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 lnventor Ba John be'rlin attorney Patented Dec. 12, 1939 SHIELDED GUN MOUNT AND AMIVIUNITION CONTAINER- THEREFOR John F. Haberlin, Seattle, -Wash., assignor to Boeing Aircraft Company, Seattle, Wash, a corporation of Washington Application January 11, 1931, Serial No. 119,905 10 Claims. (01. 89-375) My present invention relates in general to flexibly mounted guns, normally for use on air-- planes, in which a machine gun is supported on a mount which is enclosed within an enclosure, usually spherical in shape. Such mounts are disclosed in the patent to John C. Sanders, No. 2,113,143. Thev gun is so mounted that it may move with and with respect'to the enclosure, hence is said vtobe flexibly mounted. Such a mount is so constructed that guns of different caliber, as .30 caliber and .50 caliber, may be supported from the same mount and partly within the same enclosure. Such guns are frequently mounted in a nose piece or turret which is rotatable, the gun mount being eccentric to the turrets axis of rotation, so that if the turret is mounted as a rotatable nose piece or tail piece upon the fuselage of the plane a hemisphere or more of fire can be covered.

In such gun mounts the shield or spherica enclosure serves to protect the gun and the gunner from the effect of wind pressure created by the high speed of the airplane in flight, and thus permits the gun to be more readily manipulated and more accurately directed, but in such mounts the central part of the gun, at least, is enclosed within the mount, and within this central part are the feeding and discharge apertures. The ammunition is fed to such guns in the form of belts of linked-together cartridges, and must be fed substantially in the plane of the guns feeding opening; the cases are discharged downwardly only a short distance rearwardly of the feeding aperture of the gun, and the links are discharged on the opposite side of the gun from the feeding aperture, yet all these apertures of the gun are enclosed, in such a mount, within the spherical enclosure. Asa result it is necessary to support-an ammunition container within the enclosure adjacent the'feeding opening, and because it is not feasible to discharge the cases and links from the gun freely into the interior of the spherical enclosure, and because it is not possible to discharge them into a chute and thence overboard, owing to the flexible mounting of the enclosure, it is necessary to support within the enclosure a receiver for the cases and links.

It has been proposed heretofore to combine the ammunition container into one unit with the case and link receiver (see my Patent No. 2,149,522, issued March 7, 1939), but as then proposed the combined unit was awkward in shape, could not readily be stacked nor stored in the cramped space adjacent a gunners station in an airplane, was not readily attachable in operative position relative to the gun, and because of the method of supporting it inoperative position, it required certain changes in the structure of the spherical enclosure which in at least some positions thereof would detract from its efficiency.

It is, therefor v an object of the present invention to provide a gun mount, an enclosure, and as a combined unit an ammunition container and case and link receiver, so formed relatively to each other as to best cooperate, to the ends that (1) the enclosure will be efllcient in substantially all positions it may assume in use; (2) the ammunition container will be of ample capacity as will also the case and link receiver; (3) it will be of such shape and size, and so mounted for movement into and from operative position that it can be readily moved into and from such operative position, with respect to the gun; (4) all the space within the enclosure at one side of and beneath the gun will be available for occupation by the combined units; and (5) these combined units may be supplied in a form wherein they can be stacked one on another on the floor of the gunners station, and thus will be readily available and in position for easy application to the gun, and when the ammunition is used up they can be removed and stacked readily without waste of time, so that thus stacked they will not be liable to be thrown about within the interior of the airplane, to the possible injury of the gunner, bomber or other personnel, or damage to the aircraft or instruments carried thereby.

It is a further object to provide such a com-' bined unit which is adaptable to use with differ- I ent sizes of ammunition, and a gun mount which will take either ammunition and either size gun and will properly bring the ammunition container and case and link receiver into proper position with respect to either size gun which may be mounted thereon. Thus a .30 caliber gun or a .50 caliber gun may be employed at will, and the combined unit may be adapted to either size and to proper registry with a gun of either size mounted upon the gun mount.

My invention comprises the novel parts, and the novel combination and arrangement thereof, as shown in the accompanying drawings, and as will be hereinafter more particularly described in the specification and defined by the claims which terminate the same.

In the accompanying drawings 1 have shown my invention embodied in a form which is at present preferred by me, it being understood that variations may be made in the form, character and relative arrangement of the parts, all within the scope of my invention as defined by'the claims.

Figure 1 is in general an axial section through the nose or tall portion of an airplane fuselage,

illustrating the invention complete and assembled in operative position therein. Figure 2 is a rear elevation of the gun mount and certain associated parts,.and of the combinecl unit in operative position with relation to the gun.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the combined unit and two cooperating chute elements,

disposed in operative relationship to each other.

Figure 4 is a perspective view of a detail shcwing the manner of supporting the combined unit from the gun mount element.

The fuselage 9 of the airplane'may terminate, usually at its front end but in some structures at its tail end, in a large aperture lying in a plane normal to the longitudinal axis of the fuselage, and closed by a rotative, usually transparent turret 90, the turret being supported from a circular track 9| at the end of the fuselage structure by means such ,as the rollers 92, so that the turret may rotate about an axis coinciding with a longitudinal axis of the fuselage. A gun 8 is supported in such a turret for operation by a gunner within the fuselage, and for the protection of this gunner from the air blast, particularly in nose guns, the .gun is ordinarily mounted within a spherical enclosure 1 supported eccentrically of the axis'of rotation of the turret 90, and carried upon the turret, partly protruding therefrom, for rocking movement about a transverse axis 10 for elevation and depression of the gun. The gun is likewise mounted for rocking movement about an axis 12 so that it may be traversed along a slot ll. For the purpose of maintaining the gun upright whether the spherical shell I be above or below or at one side or the other of the slot H, and its breech end protruding rearwardly through an opening left at the rear end of the sphere. The ammunition unit must be moved into position from the breech end. Therefore, in order to support the gun, and to leave space for convenient manipulation of the ammunition unit, a suitable gun mount must be supported within and extending across the sphere 1, but leaving the entire space within the sphere as free as possible from obstructions. To this end I provide a bow 60 which extends from the ring 13 just within the surface of the sphere l and its framing, and secured to the front end of this bow t0 and extending substantially parallel to the barrel of the gun which isto be supported is the gun mount 6, which preferably consists of an arm, illustrated as formed from a tube which is rigidly supported from the bow Bl, at the forward periphery of the sphere and adiacent'the slot, and which extends thence rearwardly towards the rear opening of the sphere, parallel to the sup- Ported gun. For better stability and for other Purposes it may be preferable to employ two such tubes, somewhat spaced apart but connected to each other or otherwise cooperating to support the gun, but in any event located close beneath and parallel to the gun, and constituting in effect a single gun mount arm 8 securely mounted upon the how 60. The gun is carried by bolts BI and. extending upwardly to the trunnions of the gun, and in turn supported upon bridge-like bars 88 which span the space between the tubes of the arm 6. It will be observed that these tubes andthe bridge members 63 are the o y e ements pmreceiving and guiding the discharged cases.

greases Jecting substantially within the interior of the sphere l, and these tubes are arranged/as. noted above, substantially parallel to the axis of and closely adjacent to the gun 8.

The term rear, as hereir'rused, means the end of the sphere or gun adjacent the breech of the latter. Normally such a gun would'fire forwardly, and the breech end would be in fact the rear end, but if the gun is supported at the tail, firing to the rear, the so-called rear end will be actually the forward end. Again, if the gun is mountedalong the side of the fuselage, the "rear end of the gun will be towards the axis. of the fuselage.

The opening at the rear end of the sphere need only be large enough for proper sighting, for insertion and removal of the combined ammunition container and case and link receiver,

undesirable to leave any gap between its edge,

outside of the turret 90, and the turret itself, it must be remembered that the sphere, right side up in all rotated positions, as it must be for proper feeding of ammunition and gravity clearing of discharged cases and links, may at times be below the longitudinal axis of the turret, and any greater angle of opening below the gun would at such times, be very objectionable, allowing access of air within the turret.

The feeding aperture of the gun, it will be ob served, is within the sphere 1', as is also the case discharge aperture, though somewhat rearwardly' of the feeding aperture, and the link discharge aperture which is opposite the feeding aperture.

It is therefor All are within the enclosure. necessary to support an ammunition container within the sphere and also a receiver for the discharged cases and links. Since such a container should be adaptable to different sizes of ammunition, and since it should be so shaped as to be readily stacked, and so arranged that it can be applied to the gun and removed from it, when the ammunition is exhausted, with the minimum' of dimculty and time, it is preferred to form the ammunition container and the case and link receiver into one combined unit. Such a unit is shown in Figure 3, and there is also shown'in this figure the chute for receiving and guiding the discharged links-and the chute 8| for The remainder of Figure 3 comprises the approxi-. mately crescent-shaped combined unit, generally represented by the numeral I. A partition I0 divides this combined unit into a substantially upright ammunition compartment II, and a substantially horizontal receiver compartment II. The compartment H has substantially parallel front and rear walls, for between two such walls the ammunition must be closely confined, so that it will be fed in proper alignment to the gun,

be employed, I prefer that the rear wall I4 of- I provide a guide means such as the I-shaped or the ammunition compartment ll be spaced rearwardly from the front wall sufficiently to take the .50 caliber ammunition and somewhat more, and that there be a false rear wall 3 supported and guided at 3| within the compartment for movement forwardly and rearwardly between two definite positions. In the forward position it approaches closest to the forward wall of the compartment, and the compartment is then adapted for the feeding of .30 caliber ammunition. When the false wall 3 is in its rearward position the compartment is adapted to feed .50 caliber ammunition.

Because of limitations of space within the sphere 7, unless the horizontal compartment I2 is made a little longer than the compartment l I, it is likely to have too little room to contain all the cases and links discharged from the compartment ll. Its rear wall I6 is therefore spaced somewhat rearwardly of the wall It, but still parallel to the front wall of the combined unit which defines a plane surface, as seen in Figure 1. This would render it a little difficult to stack the combined units, but there may be provided a handle I1 fixed on the wall it and projecting rearwardly to the plane of the wall IE, or some, similar spacer member may be employed. Similarly a handle l8 may be provided in the wall l6, but the wall is indented to receive this handle, as indicated at l9, and the handle may be swung outwardly from this indentation when it is to be used, lying within the indentation when the units are to be stacked, as indicated at the right in Figure 1.

While a combined ammunition container and case and link receiver was disclosed in my copending application, referred to above, it was found very difficult to engage the heavy box with a support fixed on the gun, and well within the interior of the sphere l; the latter was so flexibly mounted that the difficulty arising from the cramped quarters and heavy weight was increased greatly by the necessary flexibility. It was found to be essential that some means be provided, engageable while the box is outside the sphere, to properly guide the combined unit into operative position relative to the gun, and to this end I T-shaped guide or guides 2, secured upon the bottom of the arm 6, with each of which is engageable a channel shaped guide 20 secured upon an upper edge of the combined unit. The guide 2 projects through the opening at the rear of the sphere l sufliciently to permit engagement of the complemental guide 20 without difliculty, and when thus engaged the combined unit is surely guided through the opening at the rear of the sphere and into operative position with relation to the gun and its apertures, yet may be made sufliciently large as to occupy all the available space, taking into account the aperture through which it must pass. No excess space need be left for convenience of manipulation of the box in mounting it, hence the maximum of box capacity is obtained with a minimum size of rear opening in the shell.

The combined unit thus made up may be prepared in readiness with the ammunition compartment ll filled, and a number of such units may be stacked on the floor 99 adjacent the gunners station, as seen in Figure 1. One of them is slid into position along the guide 2 and when the gun is fired the cases and links discharged will fall through the chutes 8| and 80, respectively, which are fixed with respect to the gun,

into the compartment II, which has an opening l5 directed upwardly for registry with the chute 80, and a similar opening directed upwardly for registry with the chute 8i. When all the ammunition has been discharged from the compartment II it is all or substantially all in the compartment I2, and the combined unit can be removed by sliding it rearwardly, a new unit can be taken from the stack and applied by engaging its guides 20 with the guides 2, whereupon it slides automatically into operative position with respect to the gun, and the old unit may conveniently be stacked in another place on the floor 99, stakes 98 or similar means being provided to hold the units in properly stacked position, and when they can be thus easily stacked, it is unlikely that they will be dropped on the floorupon an aircraft structure, and an enclosing and supporting shield for the gun open at its rear side, said shield being flexibly mounted upon the aircraft, means within and'supported from the shield for thus supporting a gun, with its muzzle protruding from the front of the shield, said means including an arm extending rearwardly from the front of the shield towards its open rear side, whereon the gun'is supported, a combined and unitary ammunition container and case and linkreceiver unit, and means carried by said arm supporting and guiding the latter, when inserted through the open rear end of the shield, for movement of the unit into operative position relative to the gun, the unit having such shape, and the arm and shield being so disposed as to 5 avoid interference during such movement into shield for thus supporting a gun, with its muzzleprotruding from the front of the shield and its breech protruding through the shield's rear opening, thus to aim the gun, said means including an arm extending rearwardly from the front of the shield towards its open rear side, whereon the gun is supported, a combined and unitary ammunition container and case and link receiver unit, and means thereon engageable with said arm for rectilinear sliding movement of the unit, inserted through the open rear end of the shield, along the arm into operative position relative to the gun, the unit having such shape, and the arm and shield being so disposed as to avoid interference during such movement into and from operative position. v

3. In combination with an enclosure open at its rear end for the protrusion of the breech end of a gun, two spaced tubes supported within said enclosure and extending directly rearward from its front portion to such opening, to leave a clear space beneath them, within the enclosure, said tubes being adapted for the support of a gun, with its feeding and discharging openings the gun, parallel guide rails on the two tubes, and complemental guide means 'on the combined container and receiver, cooperating with the guide rails to guide the combined container and receiv'er throughthe opening inthe enclosure, and to and from operative position with the gun, the

combined container and receiver being shaped to,

pass through the opening in the enclosure .when thus guided, and for disposition within the clear space beneath the tubes, when in operative position. 7

4. A combined ammunition container and case and link receiver for use within an enclosure as described, of generally crescent shape, a transverse partition dividing the same into two compartments, one generally upright compartment to contain live ammunition linked in belts, and the other generally horizontal compartment for receiving discharged cases and links, said upright compartment terminating at its upper end in a laterally directed feed aperture, and the horizontal compartment having an appropriate opening in its upper surface for entrance of discharged cases and links, and the front and rear elements of the combined container and receiver defining two planes which are generally parallel, whereby such units may be stacked one on another in readiness for use.

5. A combined ammunition container and case and link receiver for use within an enclosure as described, of generally crescent shape, a transverse partition dividing the same into two compartments, one generally upright compartment to contain live ammunition linked in belts, and the other generally horizontal compartment for receiving discharged cases and links, said upright compartment terminating at its upper end in a laterally directed feed aperture, and the horizontal compartment having an appropriate opening in its upper surface for entrance of discharged cases and links, and the front and rear surfaces of the combined container and receiver being generally parallel, whereby such units may be stacked one on another in readiness for use,

and guide means disposed on the top of the horizontal compartment, extending fore and aft, whereby the unit may be slid into and from operative position relative to a gun, when said guide means are engaged with complemental guide means.

6. A combined almnunition container and case and link receiver for use within an enclosure as described, of generally crescent shape, a transverse partition dividing the-same into two compartments, a generally upright compartment to contain live ammunition in belts, and a generally horizontal compartment to receive discharged cases and links, said upright compartment having front and rear walls spaced apart to confine closely the live cartridges, and terminating at its upper end in a laterally directed feed aperture, and the horizontal compartment having a front 7. A combined ammunition container and case and link receiver comprising a box partitioned to define two compartments, one to contain live ammunition in belts, and the other to receive discharged casesand links, and each compartment having an appropriate opening for passage of the same, the receiver compartment being of a volume to hold the discharged cases and links originally contained in the container compartment, whether of small or large caliber, and a vertical wall in the container compartment shiftable with relation to an opposite wall thereof, to closely confine the belts of ammunition, whether of small or large caliber.

8. A container for linked or belt ammunition for use with a machine gun, comprising a box having an outlet in a side, and having a front wall and a rear wall, a false wall within the box parallel to and spaced from one of the aforesaid walls a distance substantially equal to the length of the cartridges, and means to adjust the spacing of the false wall relative to the parallel wall, to accommodate and to closely confine a belt of cartridges of a different length.

9. In combination with an enclosure open atits rear end for the protrusion of the breech end of a gun, an arm supported within said enclosure and extending directly rearward from its front portion to such opening, to leave ;a clear space beneath said arm, within the'en'closure, means carried by said arm to support a gun with its feeding and discharging openings in definite positions inside the enclosure, a combined and unitary ammunition container and case and link receiver disposed, when in operative position, within the enclosure and adjacent the respective openings of the gun, parallel guide rails on said arm, and complemental guide means on the combined container and receiver, formed for cooperation with the guide rails to guide the combined container and receiver through the opening in the enclosure, and to and from operative position with respect to the gun, the combined container and receiver being shaped to pass through the opening in the enclosure when thus guided, and

for disposition within the clear space beneath the arm, when in operative position.

10. In combination with an enclosure open at its rear end for the protrusion of the breech end of a gun, an arm supported within said enclosure and extending directly rearward from its front portion to such opening, to leave a clear space beneath said arm, within the enclosure, means carried by said arm to support a gun with its feeding and discharging openings in definite positions inside the enclosure, a container unit disposed, when in operative position, within the enclosure and in communication with certain openings of the gun, guide means extending lengthwise of and-carried by the arm, and complementally formed guide means on the container unit cooperating with the arm-carried guide means to guide and support the container unit through the opening in the enclosure, and to and from operative position with respect to the gun, the container unit being shaped to pass through the opening in the enclosure when thus guided, and

arm, when in operative position.

JOHN F. HABERLIN.

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