Future machine THOR A1
The number of different options for a handgun weapons striking in its diversity, and the more you begin to learn about various interesting and unusual designs, the stronger becomes the understanding that an unusual and experimental weapon is just a huge amount and it is simply impossible to cover everything. Of course, everyone who knows the weapon at least a little bit is aware of the weapons that were made at least for the demonstration. But how many more interesting ideas are left on paper?
This “paper” weapon should not be treated with disdain, because the fact that a machine gun or pistol with a non-standard design was not produced does not mean that the structure itself is not viable. Often a person has a bright head full of the most daring and useful ideas, but he cannot realize them due to the lack of his own skills in working with his hands or in the banal absence of the necessary materials and tools. Legislation is also a serious stopping factor. It remains only to knock on all closed doors, which, most often, remain closed, and the designer acquires the status of a local jester.
For the sake of justice, it should be noted that not everyone understands, for the sake of weapons with slightly superior characteristics, no one will do anything. A lot of unrecognized geniuses, whose proposals were rejected due to the fact that a couple of percent of the improvements in one or another of the parameters are not worth the increased costs of production. They are trying to improve their own weapons and ammunition, develop their own unique designs, but the result is only time spent and frustration.
Even in spite of the fact that modern inventors do not need to sit in the library for hours, do each calculation manually, redo blueprints ten times and try to make at least some resemblance of a final product layout from wood, about new talented gunsmiths "from the people" Can not hear. Nevertheless, they exist, although now, more often than not, they are designers and artists.
Let's try to evaluate the work of one of them, namely, to get acquainted with the machine gun, which exists only in digital form and in it, the fastest will remain.
History nonexistent machine THOR A1
Information about the new machine appeared in 2014 year, many online entertainment resources posted not only images of the new weapon, but even its characteristics. Nobody reported anything about the origin of the “weapons of the future”, neither the designer’s name nor the company that was going to release this novelty to the market was known. However, it soon became known that the new machine is nothing but a simple idea and beautiful drawings of a young designer from Germany, so it was necessary to make an addition to all materials on this weapon, that it was not real, as well as its characteristics.
If we consider the design of the weapon itself, it becomes clear that the person loves and is interested in firearms, since most of the solutions that are used in the machine gun are rare, but not new. At the same time, it is possible to notice that a person did not attend to an in-depth study of the design of various types of weapons, since individual units are not worked out, and some simply will not work in the form that was proposed. In other words, a concept was developed, not a finished product, prepared at least for the assembly of an experimental sample.
Ergonomics and appearance of the machine THOR A1
Talking about the appearance, as well as the ergonomics of weapons, the lesson is not the most rewarding, because everyone has different tastes, and ease of use is determined rather by habit and a reasonable arrangement of controls within the capabilities of the human hand. However, something needs to be highlighted.
If we talk about the appearance, then I think many will agree with me, a beautiful, elegant weapon, but not for field operation. The point is not even that dirt can get stuck somewhere or individual elements will be inconvenient when held. It’s just that a truly full-fledged, mass-produced military weapon for mass weapons does not have a single extra bulge that would not carry any particular function in the operation or production of these weapons. In this case, you can observe the good work of the designer and the milling machine headache. By the way, the author proposes the receiver to be made of titanium alloy, which in itself causes a smile.
Despite the fact that the appearance of the machine THOR A1 is more suitable for a fantastic action movie or a computer game, some solutions are very sensible. First of all, you need to pay attention to the controls of the weapon. The fuse switch is located in front of the release button, that is, the automatic release of the circuit breaker takes place literally in a fraction of a second, while the palm of the hand does not move anywhere and does not make unnecessary movements. The switch of fire modes is located at a more familiar place for automata - above the handle to hold the hand holding the thumb. The switch itself is duplicated on both sides of the weapon. It is separately noted that the ejection of the spent cartridge case can be configured both on the left and on the right side of the weapon, although this moment is not worked out and how this switching can be realized incomprehensibly, since there are several options.
A separate advantage of the machine is to highlight the fact that even with a folded butt the weapon remains fully functional. Speaking of the butt. The butt itself is not just an emphasis for firing; it is supposed to place weapons care products in the butt. For us, this is more likely a routine or even an obligatory phenomenon, but judging by comments from abroad, many consider such a decision almost revolutionary, apparently unaware that it was used in weapons that are older than the Great October Socialist Revolution.
The additional handle to hold a weapon causes a question, it seems to someone an integral part of a modern weapon, this additional handle is inconvenient and unusual for someone, but the main thing in it is that it is not removable. That is, the machine loses the ability to install even a flashlight, not to mention the grenade launcher. It would be much more sensible to place an attachment bar under the barrel that allows you to install exactly what an arrow needs on a weapon.
But on the entire length of the receiver is a mounting plate for sighting devices. The weapon does not have its own non-removable pillar and front sights; instead, convenient gunners are installed instead. On the one hand, this is convenient, if desired, you can install what you are used to, especially the rear sight and front sight do not interfere with the addition of an optical or collimator sight. In practice, the open sights will obviously be forgotten. And they will begin to remember about them when more sophisticated aiming devices fail, and the weapon becomes useless.
Well, the most important thing that catches your eye is a curved, transparent weapon shop, which is adjacent to the machine from the back of the receiver. If you look at this detail objectively, it is obvious that such a store has both advantages and disadvantages only from the side of ergonomics, not to mention the technical side of the issue. An obvious plus is its capacity in 50 cartridges, plus the fact that the amount of ammunition is convenient to control and the balance of the machine does not change as the cartridges are spent can be considered a plus. Minus is the procedure for changing the store. In principle, you can get used to anything, once and dulnozarynym weapons used and did not complain. However, when changing a box magazine, you need to relate the store only with its upper part to the receiver; in the case of the THOR A1, the store should enter not only the receiver, but also the slots from the back of the handle to hold. That is, in a stressful situation, the store can be installed incorrectly with a bias, and this is the time spent on its proper installation, and if something else breaks or sticks ... In general, in order to take advantage of the store with a larger capacity, you need a long and hard to train in his replacement, up to automatism.
The design of the machine THOR A1
Machine THOR A1 has not only a remarkable appearance, but not the most common design. To be honest, there is nothing revolutionary in the design of weapons, separate solutions were used in various models, nevertheless, no one collected all this together in one weapon.
Given the not quite conventional design of weapons, you need to immediately understand the designations of individual parts. In the original, the red part on the animation of the weapon is labeled as a shutter; blue as a slide frame; green as a dust cover. I propose to call the green detail as a slide frame. A blue mark as a feeder.
You need to start with the cartridge supply unit from the magazine to the chamber, as well as the reasons why it will not work in this form. Due to the location and design of the magazine, the cartridges in it are located perpendicular to the axis of the barrel of the weapon, therefore, in order to feed the cartridge into the chamber, it must be rotated 90 degrees. In general, the problem is quite solvable, but in this case it is somewhat more complicated. As can be seen from the animation of the automatic weapon system, the rotation of the cartridge is implemented similarly to the ZB-47 submachine gun, but in this case the cartridge is much longer than the pistol and is located down the bullet. That is, gravity plays against such a system of turning the cartridge, which means that the cartridge during rotation should be firmly fixed. If, however, it is not fixed, then at some point it will simply be rested against a bullet and figure out, rather than turn by 90 degrees. How will the fixation of the cartridge is not shown.
After the cartridge is rotated 90 degrees, the feeder (blue detail on the animation of the automation system) picks it up and places it coaxially to the barrel channel, so that the shutter can send the shutter to the chamber. The interaction of the entire bolt group is carried out using protrusions and grooves in detail, which hints at the sensitivity of the weapon to contamination, temperature extremes, and so on.
The shutter itself moves not in a straight line, but in an arc, which, in the opinion of the author of this work, should have a positive effect on recoil in firing. It is difficult to argue with this statement, but looking at the dimensions of the bolt carrier, it is easy to guess that it will weigh a lot, but this frame moves along the usual straight line. The only thing that really justifies such a shutter device is the implementation of the supply of cartridges, since the shutter leaves the ammunition supply line.
Automation weapons, apparently built on the removal of powder gases from the barrel and their use to actuate the bolt group of weapons. It is precisely because the powder gases act on the green part, I propose to call it a slide frame, and not a casing to protect against dust. It is a little unclear how the barrel bore is locked, since changes in the trajectory of the bolt are clearly not enough for normal work with relatively powerful ammunition. The fastest blocking of the bore is due to the interaction of the blue part with the bolt carrier and the bolt. It is not clear how this happens, and the author of the design is unlikely to have thought through this moment in detail.
A separate advantage is the air barrel cooling system. So the bolt carrier, in the course of its movement, should perform the function of a pump that will capture cold air from the muzzle end into the receiver and release it already pleasantly and warmed in the face by the shooter from the back of the weapon. How pleasant it is, when a warm breeze blows in your eyes especially when aiming, we will not argue. But as it seems to me, if the weapon overheats when firing, then there is a shoal of the shooter or, more rarely, a designer.
Pros and cons of the machine THOR A1
The main advantage of the machine is its increased capacity store, but you need to understand that changing the store with this design is more difficult, not to mention the significant complication of the design of the weapon to be able to power from such stores. Assumptions that recoil when firing will be softer due to the fact that the bolt moves in an arc can hardly be considered true, since the slide frame moves in the same way as in common weapon models, and the bulk of the moving parts . The advantages include a reasonable and convenient arrangement of controls and the fact that they are available both when held with the left and when held with the right hand.
The main drawback of weapons is the complexity of its design and the implementation of the interaction of the elements of the bolt group. Since there are only two springs in the design (combat and return), everything is connected with the help of protruding elements and grooves in which they move. Accordingly, the weapon is very sensitive to pollution and lubrication depending on the ambient temperature and even a large mass of moving parts will not save the situation. Of course, everything can be done with huge gaps, so that the machine guns out like a rattle, but then the life of the weapon will diminish, not to mention the reliability of the supply of ammunition.
Conclusion
Of course, the gun THOR A1 weapon is very interesting in its design. In general, any non-standard and unusual designs have the right to life. Even if they are not applied here and now, they can be applied or taken as a basis in the future. In the extreme case, such constructions show how to do it is not necessary, which also has some benefit, because it is better to learn from the mistakes of others.
As mentioned above, there is nothing new in the weapon itself; all the solutions were somehow implemented in other samples. In other words, everything that the author of the design seemed most interesting was collected in the THOR A1 submachine gun. As a result, the design is interesting, but unnecessarily complicated.
Is it possible to implement all this in metal and bring it to more or less acceptable results at work? In my opinion, everything is completely realizable, but what the final cost it will pour out, it remains only to guess. At the same time, the weapon has only one clear advantage - a larger magazine. So even a person like me, who loves everything unusual in weapons and even somewhat perverted, admits that two stores with tapes look more profitable than the THOR A1 machine gun. Apparently, this is the main reason why these weapons are of interest only to Internet users, and not to the manufacturers of weapons.
Despite this, it should be noted that the work of the author of this concept is worthy of respect. In the end, not everyone can combine even ready-made ideas in one design. Let the individual nodes are not worked out, the design itself has a lot of problems and such a weapon will be “golden” in production, but the person spent his time, painted really beautiful pictures that many accepted as real and existing machine guns. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the fact that the author is not a gunsmith, but a designer who is only interested in firearms. At the same time, there are a lot of people with education who either sit on their pants for years, or put their diploma on the shelf and work in another specialty. It is terrible to imagine what kind of “vandervafli” would have been developed by this designer with the appropriate education, knowledge and opportunities.
This “paper” weapon should not be treated with disdain, because the fact that a machine gun or pistol with a non-standard design was not produced does not mean that the structure itself is not viable. Often a person has a bright head full of the most daring and useful ideas, but he cannot realize them due to the lack of his own skills in working with his hands or in the banal absence of the necessary materials and tools. Legislation is also a serious stopping factor. It remains only to knock on all closed doors, which, most often, remain closed, and the designer acquires the status of a local jester.
For the sake of justice, it should be noted that not everyone understands, for the sake of weapons with slightly superior characteristics, no one will do anything. A lot of unrecognized geniuses, whose proposals were rejected due to the fact that a couple of percent of the improvements in one or another of the parameters are not worth the increased costs of production. They are trying to improve their own weapons and ammunition, develop their own unique designs, but the result is only time spent and frustration.
Even in spite of the fact that modern inventors do not need to sit in the library for hours, do each calculation manually, redo blueprints ten times and try to make at least some resemblance of a final product layout from wood, about new talented gunsmiths "from the people" Can not hear. Nevertheless, they exist, although now, more often than not, they are designers and artists.
Let's try to evaluate the work of one of them, namely, to get acquainted with the machine gun, which exists only in digital form and in it, the fastest will remain.
History nonexistent machine THOR A1
Information about the new machine appeared in 2014 year, many online entertainment resources posted not only images of the new weapon, but even its characteristics. Nobody reported anything about the origin of the “weapons of the future”, neither the designer’s name nor the company that was going to release this novelty to the market was known. However, it soon became known that the new machine is nothing but a simple idea and beautiful drawings of a young designer from Germany, so it was necessary to make an addition to all materials on this weapon, that it was not real, as well as its characteristics.
If we consider the design of the weapon itself, it becomes clear that the person loves and is interested in firearms, since most of the solutions that are used in the machine gun are rare, but not new. At the same time, it is possible to notice that a person did not attend to an in-depth study of the design of various types of weapons, since individual units are not worked out, and some simply will not work in the form that was proposed. In other words, a concept was developed, not a finished product, prepared at least for the assembly of an experimental sample.
Ergonomics and appearance of the machine THOR A1
Talking about the appearance, as well as the ergonomics of weapons, the lesson is not the most rewarding, because everyone has different tastes, and ease of use is determined rather by habit and a reasonable arrangement of controls within the capabilities of the human hand. However, something needs to be highlighted.
If we talk about the appearance, then I think many will agree with me, a beautiful, elegant weapon, but not for field operation. The point is not even that dirt can get stuck somewhere or individual elements will be inconvenient when held. It’s just that a truly full-fledged, mass-produced military weapon for mass weapons does not have a single extra bulge that would not carry any particular function in the operation or production of these weapons. In this case, you can observe the good work of the designer and the milling machine headache. By the way, the author proposes the receiver to be made of titanium alloy, which in itself causes a smile.
Despite the fact that the appearance of the machine THOR A1 is more suitable for a fantastic action movie or a computer game, some solutions are very sensible. First of all, you need to pay attention to the controls of the weapon. The fuse switch is located in front of the release button, that is, the automatic release of the circuit breaker takes place literally in a fraction of a second, while the palm of the hand does not move anywhere and does not make unnecessary movements. The switch of fire modes is located at a more familiar place for automata - above the handle to hold the hand holding the thumb. The switch itself is duplicated on both sides of the weapon. It is separately noted that the ejection of the spent cartridge case can be configured both on the left and on the right side of the weapon, although this moment is not worked out and how this switching can be realized incomprehensibly, since there are several options.
A separate advantage of the machine is to highlight the fact that even with a folded butt the weapon remains fully functional. Speaking of the butt. The butt itself is not just an emphasis for firing; it is supposed to place weapons care products in the butt. For us, this is more likely a routine or even an obligatory phenomenon, but judging by comments from abroad, many consider such a decision almost revolutionary, apparently unaware that it was used in weapons that are older than the Great October Socialist Revolution.
The additional handle to hold a weapon causes a question, it seems to someone an integral part of a modern weapon, this additional handle is inconvenient and unusual for someone, but the main thing in it is that it is not removable. That is, the machine loses the ability to install even a flashlight, not to mention the grenade launcher. It would be much more sensible to place an attachment bar under the barrel that allows you to install exactly what an arrow needs on a weapon.
But on the entire length of the receiver is a mounting plate for sighting devices. The weapon does not have its own non-removable pillar and front sights; instead, convenient gunners are installed instead. On the one hand, this is convenient, if desired, you can install what you are used to, especially the rear sight and front sight do not interfere with the addition of an optical or collimator sight. In practice, the open sights will obviously be forgotten. And they will begin to remember about them when more sophisticated aiming devices fail, and the weapon becomes useless.
Well, the most important thing that catches your eye is a curved, transparent weapon shop, which is adjacent to the machine from the back of the receiver. If you look at this detail objectively, it is obvious that such a store has both advantages and disadvantages only from the side of ergonomics, not to mention the technical side of the issue. An obvious plus is its capacity in 50 cartridges, plus the fact that the amount of ammunition is convenient to control and the balance of the machine does not change as the cartridges are spent can be considered a plus. Minus is the procedure for changing the store. In principle, you can get used to anything, once and dulnozarynym weapons used and did not complain. However, when changing a box magazine, you need to relate the store only with its upper part to the receiver; in the case of the THOR A1, the store should enter not only the receiver, but also the slots from the back of the handle to hold. That is, in a stressful situation, the store can be installed incorrectly with a bias, and this is the time spent on its proper installation, and if something else breaks or sticks ... In general, in order to take advantage of the store with a larger capacity, you need a long and hard to train in his replacement, up to automatism.
The design of the machine THOR A1
Machine THOR A1 has not only a remarkable appearance, but not the most common design. To be honest, there is nothing revolutionary in the design of weapons, separate solutions were used in various models, nevertheless, no one collected all this together in one weapon.
Given the not quite conventional design of weapons, you need to immediately understand the designations of individual parts. In the original, the red part on the animation of the weapon is labeled as a shutter; blue as a slide frame; green as a dust cover. I propose to call the green detail as a slide frame. A blue mark as a feeder.
You need to start with the cartridge supply unit from the magazine to the chamber, as well as the reasons why it will not work in this form. Due to the location and design of the magazine, the cartridges in it are located perpendicular to the axis of the barrel of the weapon, therefore, in order to feed the cartridge into the chamber, it must be rotated 90 degrees. In general, the problem is quite solvable, but in this case it is somewhat more complicated. As can be seen from the animation of the automatic weapon system, the rotation of the cartridge is implemented similarly to the ZB-47 submachine gun, but in this case the cartridge is much longer than the pistol and is located down the bullet. That is, gravity plays against such a system of turning the cartridge, which means that the cartridge during rotation should be firmly fixed. If, however, it is not fixed, then at some point it will simply be rested against a bullet and figure out, rather than turn by 90 degrees. How will the fixation of the cartridge is not shown.
After the cartridge is rotated 90 degrees, the feeder (blue detail on the animation of the automation system) picks it up and places it coaxially to the barrel channel, so that the shutter can send the shutter to the chamber. The interaction of the entire bolt group is carried out using protrusions and grooves in detail, which hints at the sensitivity of the weapon to contamination, temperature extremes, and so on.
The shutter itself moves not in a straight line, but in an arc, which, in the opinion of the author of this work, should have a positive effect on recoil in firing. It is difficult to argue with this statement, but looking at the dimensions of the bolt carrier, it is easy to guess that it will weigh a lot, but this frame moves along the usual straight line. The only thing that really justifies such a shutter device is the implementation of the supply of cartridges, since the shutter leaves the ammunition supply line.
Automation weapons, apparently built on the removal of powder gases from the barrel and their use to actuate the bolt group of weapons. It is precisely because the powder gases act on the green part, I propose to call it a slide frame, and not a casing to protect against dust. It is a little unclear how the barrel bore is locked, since changes in the trajectory of the bolt are clearly not enough for normal work with relatively powerful ammunition. The fastest blocking of the bore is due to the interaction of the blue part with the bolt carrier and the bolt. It is not clear how this happens, and the author of the design is unlikely to have thought through this moment in detail.
A separate advantage is the air barrel cooling system. So the bolt carrier, in the course of its movement, should perform the function of a pump that will capture cold air from the muzzle end into the receiver and release it already pleasantly and warmed in the face by the shooter from the back of the weapon. How pleasant it is, when a warm breeze blows in your eyes especially when aiming, we will not argue. But as it seems to me, if the weapon overheats when firing, then there is a shoal of the shooter or, more rarely, a designer.
Pros and cons of the machine THOR A1
The main advantage of the machine is its increased capacity store, but you need to understand that changing the store with this design is more difficult, not to mention the significant complication of the design of the weapon to be able to power from such stores. Assumptions that recoil when firing will be softer due to the fact that the bolt moves in an arc can hardly be considered true, since the slide frame moves in the same way as in common weapon models, and the bulk of the moving parts . The advantages include a reasonable and convenient arrangement of controls and the fact that they are available both when held with the left and when held with the right hand.
The main drawback of weapons is the complexity of its design and the implementation of the interaction of the elements of the bolt group. Since there are only two springs in the design (combat and return), everything is connected with the help of protruding elements and grooves in which they move. Accordingly, the weapon is very sensitive to pollution and lubrication depending on the ambient temperature and even a large mass of moving parts will not save the situation. Of course, everything can be done with huge gaps, so that the machine guns out like a rattle, but then the life of the weapon will diminish, not to mention the reliability of the supply of ammunition.
Conclusion
Of course, the gun THOR A1 weapon is very interesting in its design. In general, any non-standard and unusual designs have the right to life. Even if they are not applied here and now, they can be applied or taken as a basis in the future. In the extreme case, such constructions show how to do it is not necessary, which also has some benefit, because it is better to learn from the mistakes of others.
As mentioned above, there is nothing new in the weapon itself; all the solutions were somehow implemented in other samples. In other words, everything that the author of the design seemed most interesting was collected in the THOR A1 submachine gun. As a result, the design is interesting, but unnecessarily complicated.
Is it possible to implement all this in metal and bring it to more or less acceptable results at work? In my opinion, everything is completely realizable, but what the final cost it will pour out, it remains only to guess. At the same time, the weapon has only one clear advantage - a larger magazine. So even a person like me, who loves everything unusual in weapons and even somewhat perverted, admits that two stores with tapes look more profitable than the THOR A1 machine gun. Apparently, this is the main reason why these weapons are of interest only to Internet users, and not to the manufacturers of weapons.
Despite this, it should be noted that the work of the author of this concept is worthy of respect. In the end, not everyone can combine even ready-made ideas in one design. Let the individual nodes are not worked out, the design itself has a lot of problems and such a weapon will be “golden” in production, but the person spent his time, painted really beautiful pictures that many accepted as real and existing machine guns. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the fact that the author is not a gunsmith, but a designer who is only interested in firearms. At the same time, there are a lot of people with education who either sit on their pants for years, or put their diploma on the shelf and work in another specialty. It is terrible to imagine what kind of “vandervafli” would have been developed by this designer with the appropriate education, knowledge and opportunities.
- Mark Poddubny
- fishki.net
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