Gun installation - 1937 British project

[Schneiderman]

This is the gun installation in a British project in 1937. I'm guessing machine guns but the sketch of the mount is not something I understand. What is the circular feature? Does it imply they could be traversed? What about the dotted lines? Looking for an armament expert. Any suggestions welcome. Thanks

 

[Nik]

Drum rather than belt feed ?? Box indicates bay tray size ??

 

[Schneiderman]

That sounds plausible, and the dotted line could show a second gun inverted alongside. Were there any guns of that period with drum feed of that size?

 

[Hood]

Yes to me it looks like a drum box, the inboard gun having its drum on the bottom (gun inverted?) and the outboard gun having its drum on top. So in essence a way to pack two drum-fed wing guns into a wing economically.

I would say the only gun that fits (and the barrel/muzzle looks very similar) is the Vickers 'K' (and would seem to be about 2ft long too).

 

[Tony Williams]

Were there any guns of that period with drum feed of that size?

From 'Flying Guns WW2':

An attempt was made by Vickers to promote the VGO as a fixed gun, and both 300-round and 600-round drum magazines were air-tested but not adopted. A twin-barrel version was also successfully developed, but as this would have required additional tooling to put into production, it was not adopted.

 

[Schneiderman]

Brilliant! Many thanks Tony and James