Vickers WWI Aircraft Machine Gun barrel

Description

The
Vickers machine gun
is a .303 British
(7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited
for the British Army
. The machine gun
typically required a six- to eight-man team to operate: one fired, one fed the ammunition, the rest helped to carry the weapon, its ammunition, and spare parts. I
t was in service from before WWI until the 1960s, with air-cooled versions of it on many Allied World War I
fighter aircraft.
Throughout WWI the Vickers saw use as an aircraft weapon with the British and French and was fitted to Sopwith Camels and the Spad XIII. The gun was ususally fitted with syncronizer gear to allow it to fire throught hte propeller blades and slots were cut in the water jacket so that it was cooled by air rather than water, which became common practice with machine guns on WWI planes.
This Vickers aircrafit machine gun barrel is a rare find. The photos show:
- Broad arrow (indicating it is British)
- Flaming bomb (indicating it is Allied and was tested)
- Interal barrel (perfect rifling, no damage)