Aeroclub Lewis Guns

Boggler · 8 February 2006, 02:30 AM

Hi,

Does anyone know what the difference is between the Aeroclub Lewis MK2 with Jacket and the Lewis ''Infantry' style gun?

Does the Infantry version have a stock?

Presumably, the Mk2 with Jacket has grip handles?

Cheers

Jim

Romani · 8 February 2006, 04:14 AM

The names are self explaining, the infantry version comes with a stock, no business on an airplane unless it's an early war improvisation.

Never heard of a Mk2 with Jacket, both the on the top wing and observer versions are without jacket and with spade handles.

drIace · 8 February 2006, 08:55 AM

Be very careful and check closely the pics of the A/c you wish to build !!!!

melsharkskin · 10 February 2006, 09:09 PM

There is a rather famous photo that appears frequently, showing what purports to be the beginning of the first US Army flight with an armed aircraft, a Wright Model B, this taking place June 7, 1912.

The photo appears again on page 15 of Sky Battle: 1914-1918 (David C. Cooke, 1970). What recently got me attention, after having seen the photo a dozen times before, was that the gun being handled in the right seat by gunner Capt. Charles Chandler is identified as an "air-cooled Lewis gun" capable of firing 560 RPM. The gun, though air cooled, had an enormous (to me) and bulky jacket on it, and though the gun was air cooled, there appears to be not a single cooling vent or hole in the jacket. Can anyone explain this to me?

I'm aware this was an early version of the Lewis gun, as invented by Lt. Col. Isaac Newton Lewis of the U.S. Coastal Artillery and weighing 26 lbs., and the drum only had a capacity of 47 rounds. Obviously, by wartime the drum capacity had been increased along with the rate of fire, and somewhere along the line this odd "cooling jacket" was lost. But could someone explain to me how it worked? It looks more like a big wrap of rubber insulation around the jacket rather than some kind of cooling apparatus.

Romani · 13 February 2006, 03:27 PM

"It was designed with an aluminium barrel casing to use the muzzle blast to draw air into the gun and cool down the internal mechanism"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Gun

When used in the air the Lewis' air cooling jacket and fins could be dispensed with: it then weighed just 9kg.

Though the casing was removed for aircraft use because the airstream cooled it, I might add that in infantry use the casing allowed the firer to hold and carry the gun without touching the hot barrel.