page_title: Roland Garros (aviator)
section_title: Development of interrupter gear
hierarchical_section_title: Roland Garros (aviator) / Biography / Development of interrupter gear
caption_attribution_description: English: Airscrew with deflector salvaged by the Germans from Roland Garros' Morane-Saulnier L. Русский: Воздушный винт с отражателями пуль, извлечённый германскими войсками из обломков аэроплана Morane-Saulnier L, пилотировавшегося Ролланом Гарросом.
context_page_description: Eugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros was a French pioneering aviator and fighter pilot during World War I and early days of aviation. In 1928, the Roland Garros tennis stadium was named in his memory; the French Open tennis tournament takes the name of Roland-Garros from the stadium in which it is held.
context_section_description: In the early stages of the air war in World War I the problem of mounting a forward-firing machine gun on combat aircraft was considered by several people.  So-called "interrupter gear" came into use when Anthony Fokker developed a synchronization device which had a large impact on air combat, after Garros used deflector plates.
  As a reconnaissance pilot with the Escadrille MS26, Garros visited the Morane-Saulnier Works in December 1914.  Saulnier's work on metal deflector wedges attached to propeller blades was taken forward by Garros; he eventually had a workable installation fitted to his Morane-Saulnier Type L aircraft. The Aero Club of America awarded him a medal for this invention three years later. Garros achieved the first ever shooting-down of an aircraft by a fighter firing through a tractor propeller, on 1 April 1915; two more victories over German aircraft were achieved on 15 and 18 April 1915.
  On 18 April 1915, Garros's fuel line clogged or his aircraft was hit by ground fire, and he glided to a landing on the German side of the lines. Garros failed to destroy his aircraft completely before being taken prisoner: most significantly, the gun and armoured propeller remained intact. It was reported that after examining the plane, German aircraft engineers, led by Fokker, designed the improved interrupter gear system. In fact the work on Fokker's system had been going for at least six months before Garros's aircraft fell into their hands. With the advent of the interrupter gear the tables were turned on the Allies, with Fokker's planes shooting down many Allied aircraft, leading to what became known as the Fokker Scourge.
caption: Garros' propeller, with its bullet deflectors, after being recovered from his downed aircraft
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