PW-1
The PW-1 machine gun ( Russian: ПВ-1: Пулемёт Воздушный 1, Pulemjot Vosduschny 1 ) was the Red Army’s first aircraft weapon developed and mass-produced in the Soviet Union . An attempt was made to curb the previously prevailing variety of types of British, American, Danish, French and German weapons with a standard model based on the Maxim machine gun system .
development
The first work was carried out by the pilot and aircraft designer AW Nadaschkewitsch at the Moscow Aviarabotnik aircraft plant from May 1923. The water-cooled MG PM 1910 in caliber 7.62 mm served as a template . From 1924 he continued his studies together with the two weapons designers FW Tokarew and IN Koljesnikow in the Tula weapons factory. The Maxim had the following disadvantages, which had to be eliminated: It was too heavy and too low a rate of fire . Cooling also caused problems as the water froze easily at high altitudes.
Development was completed in 1927 and a weapon 5.5 kg lighter with a rate of fire of 780 rounds / min (instead of the previous 600) and air cooling was created. The first firing tests have been carried out since May 1926 and after removal of the weapon by a commission, the model received the designation PW-1 ( P ulemjot W osduschnyj = aircraft machine gun).
use
The first types of aircraft to be equipped with this MG from 1928 onwards were the TB-1 heavy bomber and the I-3 and I-4 fighters . The installation was either rigid in the wings and fuselage or movable in defensive posts. In 1931 the barrel was redesigned and from then on the PW-1 was produced and used in unchanged form until 1940. In 1936 it was decided to gradually replace the model with the more powerful SchKAS . In 1940, according to Soviet data, 34,233 PW-1s were available.
Other types of aircraft in which the PW-1 was used were:
Technical specifications
| dimension | value |
|---|---|
| caliber | 7.62 × 54 mm rows |
| Bullet mass | 9.6 g |
| V 0 (initial speed) | 800 m / s |
| Rate of fire | 780 rounds / min |
| Weight | 14.5 kg |
| overall length | 1050 mm |