Inventing a way to shoot bullets through a propeller
There was an interesting invention story on a WWI documentary I saw the other night. The problem back then: How do you let pilots shoot machine guns straight ahead without hitting the propeller blades right in front of them?
Dutchman Anthony Fokker, an aviation guru, eventually came up with a solution for the Germans: Connect the gun to the propeller via an interrupter gear so that gunfire is halted whenever the blade is directly in front of the gun?s muzzle. This way, bullets always went between the blades. Fokker said that once he was able to state the problem, the solution was obvious.
Fokker himself related: ?The technical problem was to shoot between the propeller blades, which passed a given point 2400 times a minute, because the two-bladed propeller revolved 1200 times a minute. This meant that the pilot must not pull the trigger or fire the gun as long as one of the blades was directly in front of the muzzle. Once the problem was stated, its solution came to me in a flash.?
Three days later, Fokker had churned out an interrupter gear, which was the key to combining the machine gun and the plane. In essence, it allowed the plane to fire the gun, for as the pilot held down the trigger, the interrupter gear stopped the gun from firing every time the propeller blades passed before it. This amazing, yet simple, invention led to the time when Germany ruled the skies and Allied planes became known as ?Fokker Fodder?.
There was an interesting invention story on a WWI documentary I saw the other night. The problem back then: How do you let pilots shoot machine guns straight ahead without hitting the propeller blades right in front of them?
Dutchman Anthony Fokker, an aviation guru, eventually came up with a solution for the Germans: Connect the gun to the propeller via an interrupter gear so that gunfire is halted whenever the blade is directly in front of the gun?s muzzle. This way, bullets always went between the blades. Fokker said that once he was able to state the problem, the solution was obvious.
Fokker himself related: ?The technical problem was to shoot between the propeller blades, which passed a given point 2400 times a minute, because the two-bladed propeller revolved 1200 times a minute. This meant that the pilot must not pull the trigger or fire the gun as long as one of the blades was directly in front of the muzzle. Once the problem was stated, its solution came to me in a flash.?
Three days later, Fokker had churned out an interrupter gear, which was the key to combining the machine gun and the plane. In essence, it allowed the plane to fire the gun, for as the pilot held down the trigger, the interrupter gear stopped the gun from firing every time the propeller blades passed before it. This amazing, yet simple, invention led to the time when Germany ruled the skies and Allied planes became known as ?Fokker Fodder?.
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