Scarff ring
The Scarff ring was a type of
As well as becoming a standard fitting in the British forces during the First World War, the Scarff ring was used in the postwar Royal Air Force for many years. Perhaps the last British aircraft to use the mounting was the Supermarine Walrus amphibian prototype.
Scarff was also involved in the development of the Scarff-Dibovsky synchronization gear.
Although it was a seemingly simple device, later attempts to emulate the Scarff ring as a mounting for the dorsal Vickers K in the World War II Handley Page Hampden bomber were failures. Handley Page had designed a carriage with ball-bearing wheels running on a track around the cockpit. Vibration when firing shook the balls out, jamming the mounting.[1]
In the 1930s, the Germans developed a similar system called the Drehkranz D 30 (German: "slewing ring") which was used on a number of German aircraft, most notably the Junkers Ju 52.
In British use the Scarff ring was replaced in the 1930s by specialised power-operated turrets such as those made by Boulton Paul or Nash & Thompson, aircraft air speeds having by then risen to the point where a manually-operated gun was infeasible.
The Scarff Ring was also fitted to the Rolls-Royce Armoured Car vehicles of the RAF Armoured Car Companies, antecedents to the RAF Regiment.
References
- Barker, Ralph (2002). The Royal Flying Corps in World War I. Robinson. ISBN 1-84119-470-0.
- ISBN 0-7183-0362-8.