US MANUFACTURE OF THE BOFORS 40mm ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUN

[Winston]

Lots of nice machining footage here and parts layouts shown. You can legally own one:

MANUFACTURE OF THE BOFORS 40mm ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUN AT CHRYSLER

In order to supply both the Army and Navy with much greater numbers of the guns, Chrysler built 60,000 of the guns and 120,000 barrels through the war, at half the original projected cost, and filling the Army's needs by 1943.[6] Over the lifetime of the production, their engineers introduced numerous additional changes to improve mass production, eventually reducing the overall time needed to build a gun by half; most of these changes were in production methods rather than the design of the gun itself.[6][7] York Safe & Lock also produced the weapons, though its attempts to coordinate drawings across the program were unsuccessful, and this responsibility was transferred to the Naval Gun Factory in July 1943.[8]

There were many difficulties in producing the guns within the United States, beyond their complexity (illustrated by the use of 2,000 subcontractors in 330 cities and 12 Chrysler factories to make and assemble the parts). The drawings were metric, in Swedish and read from the first angle of projection, with lower precision than needed for mass production. Chrysler had to translate to English, fix absolute dimensions, and switch to the third angle of projection. Chrysler engineers also tried to simplify the gun, unsuccessfully, and to take high speed movies to find possible improvements, but this was not possible until near the end of the war.

[video=youtube;yVeLsJtId_g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVeLsJtId_g[/video]

[video=youtube;65ZewIslLbA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65ZewIslLbA[/video]

 

[Winston]

[video=youtube;TqM1PS1YTo0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqM1PS1YTo0[/video]

 

[solid_fuel]

I miss FPS Russia. Its a shame what happened to him.

 

[Winston]

The USAF Is Rebuilding World War II-Era 40mm Shells for its AC-130U Gunships

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...r-ii-era-40mm-shells-for-its-ac-130u-gunships

The U.S. Air Force is rebuilding tens of thousands of World War II-era cannon rounds specifically for the 40mm cannons on its AC-130U Spooky II. Though the service has long been looking to finally retire this particular part of the gunship’s arsenal, which has increasingly become a logistical nightmare, the aging guns have so far proven too effective to get rid of completely.

In November 2017, the U.S. Air Force revealed that the 780th Test Systems Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida had been testing the upgraded 40mm high explosive ammunition, known as the PGU-9D/B, earlier in the year. The new version combines decades old components with a fuze that is safer and more reliable than the original model. Some of the brass cartridge cases had production date stamps dating to 1944.

In all, the service plans to rebuild approximately 80,000 older rounds into the new configuration. The 780th developed the process to modify the existing ammunition and build a number of prototype rounds, but it is unclear whether the unit, which handles various munitions testing duties, will perform the rest of the work or how long the process might take in total. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) controls all of the service’s AC-130 gunships, which include the Us, as well as newer AC-130W Stinger IIs and still in development AC-130J Ghostriders.

The project does speak to the continued importance of both the AC-130U and its 40mm Bofors cannon. To give a sense of the demand for the aircraft, according to an official Air Force history, seven of the Spooky IIs assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron flew nearly 4,000 combat hours between November 2013 and June 2014. The planes and their crews spent more than 1,175 days deployed to conflict zones during that time.