Scotti Machine Gun
In 1928 there appeared the first of a series of machine guns by an Italian designer named Alfredo Scotti, who maintained offices in Brescia, Italy. In practicing his profession, Scotti always depended upon companies with manufacturing facilities to make and promote the sale of his weapons on a contract and royalty basis. His place in design history rests upon the exploitation of a single principle or system. In itself, it was not original, being based solely on the act of unlocking by rearward movement of a gas piston at a time when a high enough residual pressure remained in the chamber to complete the cycle of operation. While automatic firing mechanisms bearing the name of Scotti range from pocket pistols to cannon, they all have the rotating bolt head actuated by a gas piston.
A number of firms have been associated with weapons designed by Scotti. The Grandi Co., located at Solbiete, Italy, near Milan, manufactured many models for test including sub- and light machine guns and a 20-mm cannon. The Ansaldo firm in Italy produced a light machine gun and a 37-mm automatic cannon that was entered without success in an Italian Navy test in 1931. The main producer of Scotti’s models was the Isotta-Fraschini Co., Italy’s largest automobile and aircraft engine manufacturer. It fabricated one or more models of 30-mm cannon and several aircraft machine guns ranging in bore from 6.5 to 12.7 millimeters. Guns made by this company in 7.7 and 12.7 millimeters were used to a limited degree by the Italian Air Force throughout World War II.
Scotti’s activities were by no means confined to his native land. To handle the manufacture and sale of his weapons in all countries outside of Italy, he established Scotti-Zürich, a firm in Zürich, Switzerland. Some of the main components for these guns were made by the Swiss firm, Oerlikon, while lesser ones were obtained by contract from the Swiss Industrial Society at Neuhausen. In November 1932, Oerlikon purchased outright Scotti-Zürich, including all foreign rights to Scotti-type guns. Italian rights were reserved by Isotta-Fraschini.
The only variations in Scotti guns were in size and external appearance. The most radical of his designs on record was his triple-barrel machine gun, made in bores of 6.5 to 8 millimeters. It employed a handle to rotate a fresh barrel into position, thereby allowing the gunner to keep up continuous fire by having a cool barrel available at all times. While this may have seemed very original to Scotti and he was given a patent on it, both he and the patent researchers must never have seen the specifications of the hand-operated Lowell gun, recorded in the United States in 1875.
Scotti Aircraft Machine Gun, 7.7 mm. Scotti M1932 cal 7,7 mm.
The other rifle caliber machinegun used by the Regia Aeronautica was the Scotti gun. The designation is after its designer Alfredo Scotti, however the machinegun was actually manufactured by Isotta-Fraschini, an industrial consortium wich also made luxury cars and aero engines.
Mechanism in the Scotti was operated by gas, with a rotating bolt head for breech operation. The gun fires at open bolt and with higher rate of fire than the Breda SAFAT of the same calibre.
The open bolt system did not qualify for synchronizated mounting so the Scotti was almost exclusively used in flexible defensive emplacements.
2 views of waist 7,7 mm defensive Scotti MG emplacements in Bomber CANT Z 1007.
Rate of fire: 850-880 rpm
Caliber: 7,7 x 56R
Lenght: 1120 mm
Weight: 11.5 kg.
Muzzle velocity: 740 mps.
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