What was the interrupter gear in ww1?

What was the interrupter gear in ww1?

Sync gear, also known as an interrupter or gun synchronizer, was developed during World War I to ensure that an armament attached to a single-engine aircraft could fire through the spinning arc of a propeller without damaging the propeller blades.

Who invented the interrupter gear ww1?

…in the form of an interrupter gear, or gun-synchronizing device, designed by the French engineer Raymond Saulnier. This regulated a machine gun’s fire so as to enable the bullets to pass between the blades of the spinning propeller.

What does the interrupter gear do?

A synchronization gear (also known as a gun synchronizer or interrupter gear) was a device enabling a single-engine tractor configuration aircraft to fire its forward-firing armament through the arc of its spinning propeller without bullets striking the blades.

Who used interrupter gear ww1?

Lieutenant Oswald Boelcke
Lieutenant Oswald Boelcke was the first pilot to successfully use the interrupter gear to shoot down another airplane on August 1st, 1915. With that innovation, the German planes would continue to dominate the skies, a phenomenon known as the “Fokker Scourge” until mid-1916.

Did ww1 planes have guns?

At first most aircraft were unarmed, although some pilots did carry weapons with them including pistols and grenades. These were of limited use, however, as the body of the aircraft itself made it difficult and dangerous to fire any weapons. At the same time crude attacks were made on troops on the ground.

When was the first interrupter gear invented?

1915
Improving upon the French invention of the so-called ‘deflector gear’, which enabled fighter pilots to use machine guns to fire through aircraft propeller blades, Anton Fokker devised the much-improved interrupter gear in 1915.

Who invented shooting through propellers?

One early method of doing this was invented by none other than Roland Garros, who in December 1914 had the propeller of his Morane-Saulnier Type L monoplane fitted with metal wedges to deflect stray bullets.

Why did WW1 pilots wear silk scarves?

First World War aircra cockpits were open to the elements and cold winds tended to blow down the neck of pilots’ coats. Rather than wearing a high leather collar to stop the wind, which restricted movement and vision, a pilot would use the silk scarf to plug the gaps around his neck and keep his body warm.

Did planes drop bombs in WW1?

As the war progressed, both sides began to use aircraft to drop bombs on strategic enemy locations. The first planes used for bombings could only carry small bombs and were very vulnerable to attack from the ground.

Why was the interrupter gear not produced in WW1?

When the war broke out, Franz Schnider worked under pressure from the German Air Force to complete and build a working interrupter gear for their planes. Schnider created blueprints for an interrupter gear design however it was not produced because it was too expensive.

What was the purpose of the interrupter gear?

He devised the ‘interrupter gear’, a timing mechanism whereby the machine gun would only fire through the aircraft propellers, i.e. would cease firing whenever the propeller passed directly in front of the machine gun. This removed the need for Garros’ protective steel plates and proved much safer in practice.

Who invented the machine gun interrupter?

…in the form of an interrupter gear, or gun-synchronizing device, designed by the French engineer Raymond Saulnier. This regulated a machine gun’s fire so as to enable the bullets to pass between the blades of the spinning propeller. The interrupter itself was not new: a German patent had been taken…

Is the synchronization gear an interrupter?

The earliest patent (Schneider 1913) assumed that the synchronization gear would periodically prevent the gun from firing, thus operating as a true, or literal “interrupter”.