11m/m BALLOON GUN

Just starting on the new book FIRST TO THE FRONT, a story of the 95th Aero based on the diary of 1Lt. Waldo Heinrichs. It states that they attempted to arm 1 a/c in each flight with the 11 m/m balloon buster gun. Thought someone might be interested.
Steve

[leo]

There was a thread on this topic not too long ago.
The MG was a Vickers specially built for the task you mentioned-ballon busting.

Actually a Colt-Vickers. I haven't been able to find any info to suggest that Vickers in England made or even that England used any of these weapons. Colt made them for U.S. and for the French. It is possible that some filtered thru to the English, but no contracts were let (to my knowledge). Vickers did make a .50 Caliber, but that was after the war (1921).

Steve

[PeterL]

Steve, I don't know where it came from but it was my impression the 11mm Vickers was of French manufacture. FWIW though the USAF Museum lists thier SPAD XVI as:
"Armament: One 11mm Vickers machine gun and two .30-cal. Lewis machine guns"
Perhaps next time someone's up that way they can check it out.

A lot of the Allied WW1 A/C at Wright-Pat are armed with display 11m/m's because of the easy availabiliy of demilled parts guns. I believe that's what they used on the N-28 that Barrett is connected with at Chaplin (sp). These are Colt made guns based on the design of Vickers which was designed by Maxim. Colt had contracts with the U.S. for .30/06 (U.S.Model 1915) Vickers guns prior to our entrance into the war, tho none were delivered prior to that time. The modification of the basic Vickers gun to 11m/m was strickly a Colt venture with assistance with the French. I'm sure that Vickers, Ltd. got a royalty, tho.
Confused yet?
Regards,
Steve

The French were first to modify a Vickers gun to take their 11mm Desvignes cartridge.
Colt was making a large number of large caliber Vickers guns for the Russians, and this larger gun was the easiest to fit up for the French 11mm round. Initial problems were a too fast twist that made the tracer rounds disintegrate a short distance from the muzzle. Slowing the 1/10 twist to 1/22 solved the problem.
A large number of guns were ordered in England and America, totaling 1,700 from Colt.
The 11 mm Vickers fired 600 rpm with an effective incendiary tracer range of 1,850 yards.
Ineffective as the French round was in some respects, it showed aviation authorities the necessity of a large bore m/g or automatic cannon for warfare of the future.

Thanks John-where did you find the info that the Brits also made 11m/m guns? In fact I'm very interested in sources for any info on these guns.
I knew about the Russian contract guns that were never shipped because of the revolution.

Thanks,
Steve

George Chinn was an imprecise writer,(The Machine Gun Volume I) which is unusual for a technical scribe. I would guess that "A large number were ordered in England..." meant they were ordered from the FIRST Colt contract. But, note that it says "ordered" and not "manufactured."
I truly hope that every reader of this forum takes note that when imprecise wording is used (possibly in haste) it can cause a dilemma later when a historian tries to sort out the facts. "History does not repeat itself. Historians repeat each other."