Villar-Persosa aircraft machine gun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Villar-Persosa aircraft machine gun was an Italian double barreled machine gun designed by Bethel Abiel Revelli, a Major in the Italian Army in 1914. The weapon fired pistol calibre 9 mm Parabellum ammunition at the extremely high rate of fire of 3,000 rounds per minutes, or 1,500 rounds per minute per barrel. It was arguably the first sub-machine gun.
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[edit] History
Revelli applied for patents for the design on 8 April 1914, and subsequently assigned the patents to the Villar-Persosa company. The weapon was used by the Italian airforce and army during the First World War. Reportedly it was more successful in the ground role, as the pistol calibre bullets did not have sufficient striking power for bringing down aircraft.
A large number of the ground version of the weapon fell into the hands of German and Austrian forces following the Italian defeat at the Battle of Caporetto.
[edit] Description
The weapon consisted of two identical barrels and breech blocks linked by a connecting cross bar. It is off simple air-cooled retarded blow-back design. The bolt and striker weighed only ten ounces (280 grams), and had a total recoil travel of only 1.75 inches (4.5 cm), which resulted in the weapon having an extremely high rate of fire. The weapon was fed from two curved magazines that could hold either 25 or 50 rounds each.
A loaded short barreled version of the weapon weighed just 14 pounds and 4 ounces (6.5 kg).
[edit] See also
- Meroka Machine Gun
- Gast Gun
- Ripper Gun
[edit] References
- George M. Chinn, The Machine Gun. History, Evolution, and Development of Manual, Automatic, and Airborne Repeating Weapons, Volume I.
