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ShVAKAn aviation machine gun of system Shpitalniy-Vladimirov12.7-mm
The end of 1920th was marked by a quantum leap in development of military aircraft. The flying speed of planes, a payload weight have essentially increased (both bombers, and fighters), survivability of battle machines has improved. In this connection the decision of the government about development of a large-calibre aviation machine gun of calibre of 12.7 mm under a cartridge{patron} of 12.7-mm of an army machine gun on February, 9, 1931 has issued. Such machine gun has been designed by S.V. Vladimirov, designer of machine-gun design bureau in Tula. The pre-production model of 12.7-mm of a machine gun has been finished on May, 28, 1932. In 1932-1933 the machine gun has passed tests and in 1934 the 12.7-mm an aviation machine gun of system Shpitalniy and Vladimirov -ShVAK have been taken advantage under the name «Shpitalniy - Vladimirov - aviation - large-calibre». The principle of work of automatics has been based on use of energy of the powder gases. the Length of a trunk of a machine gun made 1246 mm, and bodies of a machine gun - 1726 mm. Number of grooves - 8. ShVAK machine gun was made in wing, turret, synchronous and motor variants. Wing variant intended for installation in a wing of the plane. Turret variant was established in turret towers and other mobile plane installations. The 12.7-mm ShVAK machine gun was the first Soviet large-calibre aviation machine gun and appeared rather effective weapon, however it had some lacks. Main from them were: - extremely big complexity of the device of separate units. - the originality of a design has rather complicated its manufacture. - at infringement of normal work of mechanisms and elimination of stoppages during shooting access to mechanisms has been extremely complicated. |
Aircraft | Armament | ShKAS 7.62mm | ShVAK 12.7mm | ShVAK 20mm | VYa 23mm | UB 12.7mm | B-20 20mm | NS-23 23mm | NS-37 37mm | Sh-37 37mm | Combat Use I-16 Armament | |