Letecky kulomet vzor 30, or "Aircraft machine gun Model 30,"

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HOW TODAY’S CZ STARTED WITH A CURIOUS AIRCRAFT MACHINE GUN

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Guns.com recently had the honor of visiting CZ’s historic European factory and found its roots ran back almost 90 years and its first product was for the Czech Air Force.

Located in Uhersky Brod, in today’s Czechia, the Czech Republic, CZ’s factory had its beginnings on June 27, 1936. Constructed some 200 miles east of Strakonice, where Ceska Zbrojovka then had its main operations, the move came as part of an initiative to shift firearms production farther away from the tense border with Hitler’s Germany.

Uhersky Brod, which today is just a few minutes’ drive from the foothills of the Carpathians and the border of Slovakia, in 1936 was well into the interior of Czechoslovakia. It was an old fortress town, a walled city, that dates to at least 1275, and the new factory was built near the town’s railway station. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

And it remains a beautiful town today. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Although one that has seen war, occupation, and resistance. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Part of the modern factory’s layout these days is a protected gun vault, which holds both CZ’s current production wares, as well as some of their historic guns.

Thus:

Sharp-eyed gun nerds will immediately spot the Sa vz. 58-- the Czech Kalash that isn’t a Kalash-- as well as the Sa 26 (vz. 48b/52) sub gun without which the UZI may never have been born, along with the Sa vz. 61 Skorpion machine pistol and the chromed out public duties vz. 52 rifle, but how about the machine gun at the top? (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

I mean, what IS this guy? (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Oh yes. Meet the Letecky kulomet vzor 30, or “Aircraft machine gun Model 30,” chambered in 7.92x57mm (8mm Mauser). This was the first gun CZ was set up to produce in Uhersky Brod. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Not to be confused with the Lehký kulomet Zbrojovka Brno vzor 30 (Light machine gun ZB model 30) which was an improved export variant of the ZB vz. 26 (which itself would go on to be redesigned as the original BREN gun), the LK vz.30 was designed from the start as a gun to arm aircraft, both in a wing-mounted belt-fed format and one fed from an overhead pan magazine and equipped with a stock and pistol grip for use by a backseat gunner/observer.

As detailed extensively by the Czech Military Historical Institute (VHU), the young country’s air force started in 1921 with a few hundred pan-fed Great War-surplus Lewis and Vickers Class F pattern light machine guns received from the British, chambered in .303. These were soon rechambered/barreled and modified to fire the same 8mm Mauser round that the Czech Army used, then were designated the vz. L/28 and vz. 28, respectively.

However, as with anything surplus, the supplies run out and, with the Czech Air Force expanding, they needed thousands of new machine guns to arm them. Enter the LK vz.30.

Designed by a team led by Frantisek (Frank) Myska-- the firearms engineer who had given birth to the CZ vz. 27, 36, and 38 pistols as well as the Sa 26 vz. 38 sub gun-- the new aircraft machine gun borrowed heavily from the Vickers Class F but incorporated a host of improvements that made it more modular.

For instance, the feed system on the belt-fed model could be swapped from left to right to accommodate different mounting positions in an airplane’s wing or equipped to fire with a synchronizer system through a spinning propellor blade if mounted on an aircraft’s fuselage. CZ took out no less than four patents on the gun’s improvements. Further, while the Class F had a rate of fire of some 700 rounds per minute, the LK vz.30 went a blistering 900-to-1,000 rpm depending on the setup.

The CZ-made LK vz.30, in this case an observer model with its characteristic 50-round drum mag. Wing-mounted belt-fed models typically used a 450-round non-disintegrating belt. The weight of the gun varied from a light 22.8 pounds in its stripped-down synchronized format, to 58 pounds for a twin observer’s gun with spade grips. (Photo: CZ)

The observer’s model also uses an adjustable buttstock and can be fitted with a pistol grip and trigger or fired via a solenoid. The stock could also be replaced with a spade grip. Note the long lever-like charging handle, seen in its back position. When forward, it folds nearly to the magazine. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Note the extensive venting on the jacket around the barrel, to allow for better air cooling, and distinctive flash hider muzzle device. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The lock is very Vickers-like. When fully loaded, a 50-round drum weighs nearly 7 pounds. (Photo: CZ)

Within just a couple of years, the LK vz.30 became the most popular machine gun in the Czech Air Force, equipping about everything the country had with wings.

The Czechs had 1,300 planes by late 1938 and most of them carried an LK vz.30 or six, depending on the arrangement.

The gun was soon fitted in not only Avia F IX and Aero A.100 bombers but also Letov S 328 and Avia B 534 fighters, with the bombers carrying a twin observer model, the S 328 carrying as many as four guns in the wings and a twin-gun for the observer, and the more streamlined single-seat B 534 just carrying four wing guns. The advanced Avia B-35, which never had a chance to make it into production, was planned to mount a centerline 20mm cannon through the engine and two LK vz.30 machine guns in the wings.

Besides the guns, the new CZ plant at Uhersky Brod also made a host of spare parts and accessories for the LK vz.30 in-house including the stocks, sights, brass catchers, practice adapters, magazine loaders, and cartridge belts. Increasingly the new facility replaced CZ’s Strakonice plant, which eventually stopped producing firearms in 1945.

The LK vz.30 proved so popular that, soon after it was introduced, CZ won contracts for sales to Estonia, Greece, and Persia.

One Czech source cites that the country’s air force by late 1938 had 2,755 LK vz.30 wing/snyc guns, another 2,070 LK vz.30 observer models, as well as a mixture of 654 assorted legacy Lewis, Vickers, and miscellaneous models, with some 92,000 rounds of 8mm ammo for the lot. In all, by early 1941 when production ended, some 6,484 LK vz.30s were completed, of which at least 784 were exported. While a peculiar design manufactured in comparatively small numbers, it saw combat under several flags during World War II and continued in service well into the Cold War.

But more importantly, it launched a facility that remains the beating heart of an internationally recognized, and cherished, part of the global firearms family.

Although the catalog these days is a bit different.

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Czechoslovak aircraft machine gun vz. 30

The name of the Czech Ordnance Factory in Strakonice is mainly associated with the production of self-loading pistols, rather in the shadow of interest to this day remain air machine guns, which can be attributed primarily to the specific nature of the on-board armament, but also to the relatively low needs of the Czechoslovak interwar air force. Work on aviation armament had been carried out by the armoury since the early 1920s and its peak was the vz. 30 aviation machine gun in the form of a highly versatile weapon, usable in the full range of the needs of the air force of the time.

In 1924, the armory adapted samples of Lewis and Vickers machine guns from the original .303 British caliber to the established 7.92 mm Mauser cartridge. Although the factory produced accessories for both machine guns in the following years, it was not until 1928 that they were adapted to the new ammunition, when the MNO introduced both types into the armament of the Czechoslovak Air Force under the designation vz. 28 (Vickers) and vz. L/28 (Lewis).

Although these were weapons of two different systems, in terms of use they suited the needs of the time. Originally a heavy, water-cooled machine gun, the Vickers machine gun suited the role of an on-board weapon firmly attached to the airframe in terms of belt feeding, while the Lewis machine gun’s disc magazine allowed easier handling on the air observer’s machine gun ring. As of 1928, the MNO had 586 Model 28 machine guns and 731 Model 28/L machine guns.

The key idea of a single aviation machine gun with an exchangeable feeding device was born in Strakonice in 1927, when the Czech Armoury designers adapted the feeding mechanism of the disc magazine for the Vickers system machine gun. Its connection to the gun housing by two bolts allowed easy conversion to belt feeding. The design of the Vickers machine gun allowed for a higher cadence, which was closely related to the synchronised firing of the propeller circuit using a synchroniser.

The versatility of the design was also enhanced by the patent-protected belt-feeder design, which allowed the direction of belt feed to be changed to the left or right side by simply moving the arms in the feeder to the other side and turning the feed throat. No Maxim or Vickers machine gun at the time had a similar solution.

The loading device of the machine gun had undergone a number of improvements, the most important of which was the possibility of unloading the machine gun by means of the loading lever after a pause in firing without the shooter having to manipulate the cartridge belt or remove the magazine. The list of all modifications and improvements of the weapon would be very extensive, as the Czech Armoury designers were continuously improving the machine gun until 1938. Among the technical officials who were involved in the development of the air armament, let us mention especially ing. Sikyta, František Brejcha, Václav Zíbar, ing. Jaroslav Malina, Karel Ženíšek, Adolf Sýkora, Jaroslav Koska, ing. Šula, Rudolf Lacina and František Myška.

The first MNO order for 629 complete Model 30 aerial machine guns, including 63 sets of spare parts and other equipment, was received by the factory in May 1932 and its fulfilment kept it busy until April 1934. Before the armoury was able to fulfil it, the MNO Aviation Department ordered another 126 units including accessories in 1933 and at the end of March 1934 the factory received an order for 137 machine guns and 16 sets of spare parts.

The military-political map of Europe was gradually taking on a completely different character; the threat from Germany after Adolf Hitler came to power proved to be a real threat. The protection of strategically important factories and the search for ways to relocate their production to the interior had occupied the MNO since 1934. In the case of the Czech Armaments Factory, whose factory in Strakonice was located relatively close to the border, the MNO sought the possibility of building a new plant in the area of Uherské Hradiště. The original intention of the MNO was to transfer all armaments production to Moravia and leave the other peacetime production programmes in Strakonice. However, this met with resistance from the management of the armaments factory, who were aware that the liquidation of the armaments production would lead to a substantial reduction of jobs in the Strakonice factory.

The MNO placed another order for 490 vz. 30 aerial machine guns with spare parts and made the building of a branch plant and the relocation of production a condition. The April 1935 order was also complicated by a change in the outlook of the military administration, which had been ordering universal machine guns from ČZ, i.e. complete kits enabling the weapon to be assembled into a pilot or observer configuration. On the basis of the permission of the head of the Artillery and Armaments Department of the Ministry of Defence of 1 December 1934, the armoury ordered all the material for the production of universal machine guns, but at the beginning of 1935 the Ministry of Defence changed the requirement to deliver only pilot versions, so that the armoury had to cancel the ordered material, but nevertheless it delivered 170 universal machine guns to the military administration, which were already in progress at that time, and it also obtained an extension of the delivery deadline until mid-December 1935. The same year, in May 1935, the Ministry of Defence issued a decree on the introduction of the vz. 30 aviation machine gun into the armament of the air force.

The Ordnance Factory received another large order in 1936, when the MNO ordered 356 vz. 30 machine guns including spare parts in February, followed by an order for 850 units in the pilot and 500 in the observer version in July. The machine guns from the second, so-called large MNO order were already being produced by the branch plant in Uherský Brod. In addition to complete weapons, the armoury filled smaller orders for shoulder rests, for tubular cartridge discharges, for pilot and observer sights, for inserts for training amplifiers and for disk magazine and cartridge belt fillers.

The work on the air armament culminated in 1938, when the MNO ordered first 610 pilot and 100 observation machine guns in April, then another 1,420 Model 30 machine guns with three million cartridge cells. In addition, the armoury produced 160 sets of machine-gun couplers for B-71 aircraft, 20 vz. 38 machine-gun couplers for A 304 aircraft, 19 sets of vz. 37/38 machine-gun couplers for MB 200 aircraft and 300 Samek vz. 32 synchronisation warheads.

The MNO did not manage to take over the last 1,420 vz. 30 machine guns ordered. By 15 March 1939, when the German occupation army occupied the rest of the republic, only 973 units had been taken over. In total, the armoury delivered 4,738 vz. 30 machine guns to our air force in 1932-1938, according to the orders mentioned above, but the MNO records as of the date of occupation showed 4,825 pieces (2,205 pilot and 1,660 observation machine guns in Bohemia and Moravia, 550 pilot and 410 observation machine guns vz. 30 remained in Slovakia).

The production of aircraft armament, either on the basis of army orders or for export, was still going on in Uherský Brod in 1941. In total, the Czech Ordnance Factory produced 6,484 vz. 30 machine guns at both plants, of which 784 were exported in various versions to Greece, Estonia and Persia (from 1935 Iran).

In its time, the air machine gun was a technically perfect, versatile weapon, which corresponded to the needs of the Czechoslovak Air Force at that time. However, the rapid development of aviation technology in the late 1930s was no longer enough.

The museum acquired the 1940 model in the observer version with belt feed and shoulder rest vz. 34 in 1953 by transfer from the 21st Airfield Battalion in Hradec Králové.

Calibre: 7,92 mm Mauser

Overall length: 1027 mm

Barrel length: 665 mm

Weight of weapon: g

Theoretical cadence: 900 rounds/min.