MAC 1934
MAC 1934 | |
---|---|
Type | 7.5 mm MAS |
Caliber | 7.5 mm |
Action | Gas |
Rate of fire | 1200-1450 rounds per minute |
Muzzle velocity | 830 m/s (2,722.4 ft/s) |
Feed system | drum or belt |
Sights | Alkan 35 |
The MAC 1934 is a machine gun of French origin. It is effectively the aircraft variant of the Reibel machine gun.
History
In 1934, the Manufacture d'Armes de Châtellerault (
- the type tourelle (turret model), fed from 100-round replaceable magazines, was used in flexible mountings, where it was generally fitted with an Alkan 1935 reflector gunsight.
- the type aile (wing model) fed from a 300- or 500-round drum magazine, was used for fixed mountings.
Because it used an open bolt action, the MAC 34 could not[citation needed] be fitted with synchronization gear, and was more expensive to manufacture than comparable weapons; but it was compact and had excellent reliability.
Originally the Armée de l'Air favoured magazine-fed weapons, but it eventually accepted that the feeding system of the MAC 34 would require too frequent reloadings for dorsal gunners, and was impractical for wing mountings, so it required the development of a belt-fed variant. The resulting weapon was introduced in 1939, and designated as MAC 1934 M39.
Overview
The MAC 1934 machine gun equipped French aircraft from 1935 until the later 1940s. Like other rifle-calibre machine guns, the MAC 34 proved to be too light for combat in
Post World War II usage
The MAC 1934 was used in Algeria on
Users
See also
- List of firearms
- List of uncommon World War II weapons
- List of aircraft of the French Air Force during World War II
Sources
- Danel, Raymond and Cuny, Jean. L'aviation française de bombardement et de renseignement 1918-1940 Docavia n°12, Editions Larivière
- Pelletier, Alain. French Fighters of World War II. Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., 2002. ISBN 0-89747-440-6.
External links
- "Munitions et armement d'aviation France" (in French). Archived from the original on 2006-05-16. (includes photographs of all MAC 34 variants)
- Armée de l'air (1936). Notice technique de la mitrailleuse M.A.C. modèle 1934, type aile; type tourelle... [Technical manual of the M.A.C. model 1934 machine gun, wing version; turret version] (in French). Paris: Impr. nationale.