Franz Gebauer - Weapon Designs

Weapon Designs

During World War I the Schwarzlose MG M.07/12 was the standard machine gun for aircraft use. It was internally modified and air cooled to increase its firing rate to 700 rounds per minute, and normal practice was to use a pair of synchronized guns. However, although the Schwarzlose was an excellent infantry weapon on the ground, its use in aircraft had problems; at altitudes approaching 4,000 m (13,000 ft) the cartridge oiling system tended to freeze up, causing many failures during combat.

Gebauer concluded that the then-common practice of converting infantry machine guns for aircraft use was outdated. The most common problem with such converted weapons was that the position of the aircraft's propeller controlled the time of firing only, with the rest of the gun's operation depending on the force of propellant gases; a late-firing cartridge could cause damage to the propeller blades, while misfires stopped operation altogether. Gebauer had the idea to directly power a machine gun from the aircraft's engine, independently of the gas produced by the gun's cartridges. This meant that misfired cartridges would be automatically ejected and the next loaded. He called it the direct driven motor machine gun.