Vickers machine gun
The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled .303 inch Machine Gun produced by the Vickers company for the British Army, beginning in 1912. This machine gun required a six to eight-man team to operate: one to fire, one to feed the ammunition, and the rest to keep the ammo-feeder supplied and carry the associated gear.
The gun had a reputation for great solidity and reliability, and many of its gun crews became very devoted to the machine, spending off-hours lovingly maintaining each piece at highest efficiency.
The weight of the gun itself varied based on the gear attached or removed, but was generally between 25 and 30 pounds (11 and 13 kilograms), with a 40- to 50-pound (18 to 23 kilograms) tripod. In addition, it required 7.5 pints (4.62 litres) of water in its cooling system to prevent overheating, and the belt boxes (which carried 250-round ammunition belts) weighed 22 pounds (10 kilograms) each.
The Vickers gun used the British standard .303 inch (7.7 x 56mm) cartridges, which generally had to be handloaded into the cloth ammunition belts.
The gun's length was 3 feet 8 inches (110 centimeters) and its cyclic rate of fire was between 450 and 600 rounds of ammunition per minute, with a range of 4,500 yards (4,115 metres).
The machine gun became standard weapons on all British and French military aircraft after 1916, when fitted with interrupter gear to allow it to fire through the propellers.
