Davis gun

[ghbucky]

I ran across this oddity from WW1 today but I'm not finding very much about how it works.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Davis_gun.jpg/1000px-Davis_gun.jpg


https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Davis_gun

His design connected two guns back to back, with the backwards-facing gun loaded with lead balls and grease of the same weight as the shell in the other gun, acting as a counter. His idea was used experimentally by the British and America as an anti-Zeppelin and anti-submarine weapon[2] mounted on the British Handley Page O/100 bomber and the American Curtiss HS-2L and H-16 (flying boats)[1] respectively. The direct development of the gun ended with World War I, but the firing principle has been copied by later designs.

They apparently mounted them in nose turrets... better be careful of that backblast! The pilot, wings, engines... all behind him.

Sparse info about it. Does anyone have more info?

 

[DaleA]

Speachless!

Your article states the obvious reason being to create a 'recoiless' rifle but IMhO that is really thinking outside the box!

Thanks for posting.

P.S. The Zepplins, (mentioned in one of your articles) even though filled with flammable hydrogen gas were tougher to destroy than I figured they would be. The Brits had to spend a lot of time and effort developing an incendiary round that would blow them up.

 

[ghbucky]

I was hoping to find out more about this.

Could they reload it while airborne? It had to be a lengthy process if so. Or did they carry multiple pre-loaded tubes that they fitted together?

It just seems to be a cumbersome weapon to try to deal with while aloft.