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Fokker-Leimberger

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The Fokker-Leimberger was an externally powered, 12-barrel rifle-caliber rotary gun developed in Germany during the First World War. The action of the Fokker-Leimberger differed from that of a Gatling in that it employed a rotary split-breech design, also known as a "nutcracker".

Wikidata facts

Subclass of
machine gun
Country of origin
German Empire
Image
Fokker-Leimberger.png
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Commons category
Fokker-Leimberger
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Encyclopedic overview

4 sections
Contents
  • Design
  • History
  • See also
  • References

The Fokker-Leimberger was an externally powered, 12-barrel rifle-caliber rotary gun developed in Germany during the First World War. The action of the Fokker-Leimberger differed from that of a Gatling in that it employed a rotary split-breech design, also known as a "nutcracker".

Fokker claimed the gun achieved over 7,200 rpm, although this may be an exaggeration. Failures during the war were attributed to the poor quality of German wartime ammunition, although a British 1950s experimental weapon with the same type of breech had ruptured-case problems. Fokker continued to experiment with this type of breech after his post-war move to the United States. A different Fokker prototype in a US museum attests to the failure of this line of development.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Fokker-Leimberger” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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