page_title: Revolver cannon
section_title: Precursors
hierarchical_section_title: Revolver cannon / History / Precursors
caption_attribution_description: English: MLG27 onboard Elbe Class Tender Rhein at the en:Kiel Week 2007.
context_page_description: A revolver cannon is a type of autocannon, commonly used as an aircraft gun. It uses a cylinder with multiple chambers, like those of a revolver handgun, to speed up the loading-firing-ejection cycle. Some examples are also power-driven, to further speed the loading process. Unlike a rotary cannon, a revolver cannon has only a single barrel, thus its spun weight is lower. Automatic revolver cannons have been produced by many different manufacturers.
context_section_description: An early precursor was the Puckle gun of 1718, a large flintlock revolver gun, manually operated. The design idea was impractical, far ahead of what 18th century technology could achieve.
  During the 19th century, Elisha Collier and later Samuel Colt used the revolver action to revolutionize handguns.
  The Confederate States of America used a single 2-inch, 5-shot revolver cannon with manually rotated chambers during the Siege of Petersburg. The gun was captured in Danville, VA by Union forces on April 27, 1865.
  The Hotchkiss revolving cannon of the late 19th century was not a revolver cannon in the modern sense, more similar to a Gatling gun.
  In 1905, C. M. Clarke patented the first fully automatic, gas-operated rotary chamber gun, but his design was ignored at the time. Clarke's patent came as reciprocating-action automatic weapons like the Maxim gun and the Browning gun were peaking in popularity.
  In 1932, the Soviet ShKAS machine gun, 7.62 mm calibre aircraft ordnance used a twelve-round capacity, revolver-style feed mechanism with a single barrel and single chamber, to achieve firing rates of well over 1800 rounds per minute, and as high as 3,000 rounds per minute in special test versions in 1939, all operating from internal gas-operated reloading. Some 150,000 ShKAS weapons were produced for arming Soviet military aircraft through 1945.
  Around 1935, Silin, Berezin and Morozenko worked on a 6000 rpm 7.62 mm aircraft machine gun using revolver design, called SIBEMAS (СИБЕМАС), but this was abandoned.
caption: MLG 27 remote controlled revolver cannon on board an Elbe class tender of the German Navy
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