Machines | interrupter gear or machine gun synchronizer
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This was recorded in the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa, Ontario. Interrupter gear : From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia An interrupter gear is a device used on military aircraft and warships in order to allow them to target opponents without damaging themselves. The term covers two related technologies: the first, more accurately referred to as synchronization gear, or a gun synchronizer, is attached to the armament of a tractor-type craft so that it can fire through the arc of a spinning propeller without the bullets striking the blades. Introduced during the First World War, the gun synchronizer was a significant development in the history of aerial warfare and remained in operational use until the Korean War, after which the universal adoption of propeller-less jet aircraft rendered such gears unnecessary. The other, true interrupter gear stops the firing of the machine gun when some part of the aircraft is in the way. For much of the early history of the fighter aircraft this was limited to the propeller. This would change with the introduction of gun turret mounts on bomber aircraft. Though their effects were the same, there was a subtle difference between the concept of the interrupter and the synchronizer. A machine gun fitted with interrupter gear had the trigger normally enabled and the interrupter mechanism would disable the trigger when a propeller blade was in the way. A machine gun fitted with synchronization gear had the trigger normally disabled and the synchronizer mechanism would enable the trigger when the propeller was clear, essentially with the rotating parts of the engine (the crankshaft and other parts connected to it with an inline engine, the crankcase with a rotary engine) firing the gun. In reality, the technical difficulties associated with reliably halting, or co-ordinating, the firing of a Maxim-type machine gun meant that no working interrupter system was ever developed — all successful implementations used the concept of synchronization.
Comments
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Adolf sent me.
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Why did they go through all this trouble man just put the damn machine guns in the wings, seemed so unnecessary illogical and just risky work
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As a kid, I just thought that they prayed for the best and hoped it didn't hit the propellers that were spinning so fast lol
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Holy crap...the technology that was created so long ago is so smart.
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Thank you for this. Everything else I saw was too complicated/didn't make sense to me. The explanation with the actual video of it happening helped me see how this works.
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SLO mo guys brought me here
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If I remember my history correctly this gave the Central powers a massive advantage during WWI until the Allies caught up to the fact that forward firing machine guns were far better than other alternatives, if you could develop a working Synch' gear that is.
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This means that the RPM of the engine modifies the cyclic rate of fire. Your gun fires faster or slower depending on the speed of the engine. Cool engineering!
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so dope
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why are the pistons spinning?
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totally came here because of the Slo-mo Guys
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Philip send me
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Cool to see this, because my great grandfather is the one that helped design this!
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This answers a question I've always been asking myself, how do they shoot without hitting the blades!
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Something I've never thought I'd be curious about. Very nice.
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Ahhhh this museum is really amazing, y'all should go check it out!
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Canada I'm coming to that museum
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Eyyyyyy I used to volunteer there!
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PhillyD sent me
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slow mo guys?