Lewis Gun Extras - Scarff Ring

The Lewis gun was one of the most widely used machine guns fitted to Allied WW1 aircraft. It was lightened and modified to fire 900-1000 rounds per minute, and had a 97 round magazine. Once Interrupter gear was invented, the gun was used by the observer for self protection, with one or two guns fitted to a Scarff ring. This animation also looks at the problems of aiming in aerial warfare.
Apart from the problem of vibration from the aircraft, and the target's manoevering, it is also necessary to aim where the target will be when the bullets reach him. The 'Aim off' varies depending on the direction the target is flying. An added problem for the observer firing a gun out the side is that the bullets also inherit the aircraft's velocity. For this reason, a special sight 'the Norman vane' was introduced to automatically correct for the component of aircraft speed added to the bullet.
Animation created using Cinema 4D
Music: 'Timelapsed Tides' by Asher Fulero

[@demos113]

Never heard of the Norman Vane before, outstanding. 😊

[@YerBoiTex]

Well it’s about 105 years too late but would’ve been a killer training video for back in WW1 or 2!

[@doodlegassum6959]

Dont worry too much. They were smarter back then.

[@neurofiedyamato8763]

The Vane sight was amazing. Man that is genius

[@mayorgeneralramirez1997]

I still don't get how it works

[@david9783]

He also invented the Weather Vane. : )

[@rasdread0989]

2:16 "son i'm sorry.. They got us"

[@yourfriendlyneighborhoodso1698]

Indiana Jones

[@christophervanerp1133]

This oughtta make me better at Battlefield 1.

[@eugeneoliveros5814]

only if your pilot isnt a complete dumdum and throwing off your aim every three seconds

[@braindeadgaming808]

“BRUH THERES THE ENEMY PLANE AND HE HAS THE HIGHEST KILL COUNT IN THE SERVER”

[@Ifoundnohappinesshere]

Who ever decided to put a gunner on a plane had revolutionized how aviation warfare fought

[@evanwickstrom5698]

Well, sort of. The eventual conclusion was still that defensive gunners were by and large not worth their weight, and that defensive fighters were far, far more effective. Aiming a turret or swivel mounted gun effectively enough to hit enemy aircraft was tricky to start with, and the use of turrets means you need the extra weight of the guns, ammunition, life support (if at high enough altitudes), and if the turret is powered, the hydraulic, pneumatic, and/or electric systems to drive it, not to mention the crew. There’s a reason that every position save the tail gunner disappeared over the course of the cold war. So while air gunnery did result in vast changes for combat flying, it was eventually found to be inefficient and mostly phased out.

[@Ifoundnohappinesshere]

K

[@BHuang92]

@@evanwickstrom5698 Alot better then a bloke flying and shooting with a pistol or a rifle............

[@gungasc]

Got one of these on my car in Texas. My nieces/nephews and their friends love it! Good ol' USA!

[@vbbsmyt]

Designed and built in the UK.

[@Frogma985]

found your videos on accident after watching how bullpups work, loving your work man, keep it up

[@HugoEckener127]

What a great video! Thanks for illustrating the clever vane sight and the way those big spider were actually aimed!

[@olanilsson6748]

I love your videos. I would love to see the Swedish 40mm Bofors AA in a video.

[@WhitzWolf92]

If you haven't seen them already by now, he's since made videos for 2 different Bofors 40mm variants (1943 and L/60).

[@davidgolden6068]

Fantastic video! There is one more thing to consider in aiming while flying: the bullet is spinning. Like backspin or topspin on a ping-pong ball makes it float or drop respectively, the bullet will do the same thing depending on what side of the aircraft you're shooting out of and the direction of barrel rifling (usually clockwise)

[@david9783]

Heck, here I was thinking they just fired wildly hoping to hit something. And now I learn they had automatic sights! Very interesting, as always!

[@gunargundarson1626]

I can't believe the US took out King Kong. He was the last of his kind, and a misunderstood species.

[@artilleryfire6576]

what

[@dimdimbramantyo7666]

What

[@bezahltersystemtroll5055]

XD

[@oliwia5877]

@@dimdimbramantyo7666 hej

[@dimdimbramantyo7666]

@@oliwia5877 hi

[@envitech02]

Excellent video! Very informative. 100 yr old technology and I'm just learning it.

[@rich7787]

I saw a video on another channel (forgotten weapons) that discussed the Norman vane and how it works but I still didn’t understand. Now I do, thanks for the excellent videos!

[@giuliusmind9932]

This video about aiming on a plane it is so interesting! Thanks for your amazing job!!

[@vitynhuu]

I liked so much of the explication, my mind explodes after this

[@TheGrenadier97]

Fine work sir.

[@sebbes333]

2:30 OOOH!!! That is AWESOME!! :D Super smart! :D

[@brunomoyano8727]

Justo estaba viendo uno de tus videos

[@MatzeB111]

Very nice, thank you very much for that.

[@Rincypoopoo]

Thanks. Just what I wanted to know.

[@leekaijit36]

Nice demonstration, actually. We may can seen this tactic on ww2, but the invent of the air jet engines result this were no longer to issue it. (For apologies if there's a grammar mistake)

[@markjmaxwell9819]

Pretty cool stuff for WW1... Before the age of electronics....

[@raybrown5890]

thanks for sharing

[@fratercontenduntocculta8161]

It's kinda like Naval Combat from the air, trying to broadside each other.

[@bezahltersystemtroll5055]

02:33 🤯

[@ronaldli5]

The vane sight can be explained much much better that isn't shown in the video. I'm sure many people are still left perplexed, albeit piqued at the existence of such a device. I"m currently looking this up and it's very obscure information. Does the vane sight have something to do with incoming wind that deflects off of the "vane" (a basic piece of metal) and it rotates the correcting sight against spring tension, based on the angle of the gun and speed of the aircraft (which would affect how much the vane is being rotated on the axis?)

[@vbbsmyt]

These sights were set up for the average speed of the WW1 aircraft - about 100 mph, and the vane will always point in the direction that the aircraft is moving - no springs, just the slipstream. However, when you are firing from an aircraft the bullet not only has the exit velocity from the gun (speed along), but also has the velocity of the aircraft (speed across), and so travels a different path. (simple geometry, vectors). If fired on the beam, the bullet would travel along the hyponenuse of a right angle triangle. Now as the gun is aimed forwards, more of the aircraft speed is added to the speed along and less to the speed across, so the sight correction is less. Look at the animation again and think geometry and vectors.

[@operatorevanguard1452]

I sent this to all my friends that want to play war thunder and Arma 3 and be the pilot

[@rodriguesmateus14]

I wonder If the Battlefield 1 animators had to do all this math when they did the game. Great video though

[@therecklessboyt.r.b5207]

Can u do steam boilers that was use in ww2 navy ships at the time

[@Jukebocks]

Does the Lewis Gun detach from the hoop in any way or is it fixed by bolts?

[@vbbsmyt]

At 0:32 you can see the circular clamp that holds the gun to Scarff mount. Rotate the lever on the left, remove it and the clamp opens up to free the gun.

[@michaelbevan3285]

the guns were stored away from the aircraft overnight and the gunner was responsible for "his" gun and it's care and cleanliness.

[@Storm-ri9jb]

Which country produced this weapon?

[@pacman10182]

England

[@Storm-ri9jb]

@@pacman10182 thanks

[@Storm-ri9jb]

@@Feroce thanks

[@Zorglub1966]

BSA in UK, Savage in USA, Armes Automatique Lewis. in Belgium, and also licence made in Japan

[@Ifoundnohappinesshere]

Of course is England.......don't you see the Lewis gun (Sorry for being a little mean to you)

[@delarosapaulo7236]

Im learning new things because of this thing what they called algorithm Not complaining tho

[@beacher50_]

The stock is a shovel handle

[@dou5689]

Great music, care to elaborate?

[@vbbsmyt]

Music details are at end of video: 'Timelapsed Tides' by Asher Fulero

[@naemyo7379]

I would like to see G11 animation.

[@carcano9188]

Breda Mod.37 please

[@raphlvlogs271]

what happened to them after the war ended?

[@riyadhraslan1045]

I still can’t figure out how the bullets in the round mag can manage to shoot out the Lewis gun.

[@shrimpshot1581]

It rotates and all the bullets face towards the center. It drops 1 bullet into the receiver shoots it and spins the magazine with a lever just enough to drop another bullet into the receiver. A shit ton of moving parts and really complex but a good gun nonetheless

[@neptune3569]

Did you watch the Lewis Gun video vbbsmyt made?

[@raphlvlogs271]

were the sites too far away from the barrow?

[@stanrogers5613]

Were the sights too far away from the barrel? No. If your target is only a couple of yards (or metres) away, you might hit a little low (about 4 inches/10 centimetres), but any any real distance your bullet is moving upwards relative to the sight line when it leaves the barrel and will cross the sight line, rise slightly above it, then fall below it again later. It's not like you're trying to hit a 1 cm bullseye, either - you're trying to disable an aircraft any way you can, and an inch (a couple of centimetres) one way or another isn't going to make any meaningful difference, since your own aiming error at 100 metres from a rickety WW1 kite is going to be far greater than any offset caused by the sight position.

[@johannnespaul4300]

one question ? 3:39 why does the red dot doenst move? when it clearly should be

[@vbbsmyt]

That section shows the sight picture - where to place the target aircraft on the sight ring, for various target aspects.

[@rockett6578]

Fun fact you didn’t search this up

[@vbbsmyt]

I don't understand your comment.

[@rockett6578]

@@vbbsmyt it means everyone was recommended this as in you didn’t try to find this the KZbin algorithm did it for you

[@vbbsmyt]

Oh dear, I am getting old! Thank you for your explanation, and it is encouraging that KZbin has finally recognised me.

[@sebbes333]

True.

[@tridocnight]

сложна, сложна...

[@IndraJayaGroup]

Damn i hate mathematics

[@przemekfracisz7313]

MG-42

[@polaktak7701]

It's 0:05 am

[@bothkonkhmerofficial6828]

DKZ-75 muy

[@blacklunaazul8503]

Wooow!!! No entendi

[@litylmen98]

Что за игра?

[@nanab256]

Lol this shovel grip xd

[@user-jv1mb5tp8q]

про упреждение нихрена не понятно как обьяснили

[@user-uj7wz7mk7i]

BF1

[@C4ACT_E]

халтура а не видео.

[@ihorkorotchenko9732]

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