Hi Could anybody tell me anything about the 303 Air service cartridges i have a box of 10 Kynoch rounds dated 1928.
Thanks in advance
Andy
Thanks in advance
Andy
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303 Air service cart
- Thread starter Andysarmoury
- Start date
TonyE
HONOURED MEMBER RIP
Air Service
These are rounds made by Kynoch for export to countries using Vickers and Lewis guns, often on British made aircraft. The last big batch that came to the UK a couple of years ago was all ball ammo from one of the Baltic countries, I think Lithuania. Post WWI these countries were largely equipped with British small arms etc.
By "Air Service" it means specially quality controlled for suitability of use with Constantinesco interrupter gear, what was known as "Red Label" in British service. Your packet is probably printed on red paper for that reason.
The quality control was particularly applied to ignition time as obviously the slightest hang fire would cause the bullet to hit the propeller blade. Other points were closely gauged tolerances for overall length, concentricity and other dimensions to prevent stoppages in the Vickers. Depending on the aircraft, it was sometimes not possible for the pilot to reach the gun to clear a stoppage in the air.
In addition to ball, these Kynoch rounds can be found in green packets for AP and blue packets for Buckingham incendiary, usually called smoke tracer on the labels. I think the tracers were usually in yellow/orange packets.
Regards
TonyE
These are rounds made by Kynoch for export to countries using Vickers and Lewis guns, often on British made aircraft. The last big batch that came to the UK a couple of years ago was all ball ammo from one of the Baltic countries, I think Lithuania. Post WWI these countries were largely equipped with British small arms etc.
By "Air Service" it means specially quality controlled for suitability of use with Constantinesco interrupter gear, what was known as "Red Label" in British service. Your packet is probably printed on red paper for that reason.
The quality control was particularly applied to ignition time as obviously the slightest hang fire would cause the bullet to hit the propeller blade. Other points were closely gauged tolerances for overall length, concentricity and other dimensions to prevent stoppages in the Vickers. Depending on the aircraft, it was sometimes not possible for the pilot to reach the gun to clear a stoppage in the air.
In addition to ball, these Kynoch rounds can be found in green packets for AP and blue packets for Buckingham incendiary, usually called smoke tracer on the labels. I think the tracers were usually in yellow/orange packets.
Regards
TonyE
Last edited:
Thank you very much Tony for a great write up, i will have to look out for the other pkts
Cheers
Andy
Cheers
Andy