The John L. Hill Submachine Gun and the Unusual P90
John Hill thought long. And came up with
Amazing things sometimes happen in invention and, in particular, military inventions. And it was like this that in the end of the 40 of the XX century, the former American military pilot John L. Hill (article on "VO" "Projects of submachine guns with longitudinal placement of the store" from 5 June 2014 of the year), an engineer from an oil producing company, came up with a strange thought. He decided that he would be able to develop a submachine gun of his own design. In this case, his main idea was to create for him a store of new design, which would give the opportunity to significantly increase his ammunition without a special change in the dimensions of the actual submachine gun. In addition, he did not like the shops, inserted into the submachine gun from the bottom. Long shops were inconvenient because they bumped into the ground and forced the soldier to rise high above the ground for firing. The top-mounted magazine interfered with the aiming, and again the side could not be very long, because it interfered with the retention weapons.
The futuristic-looking submachine gun P90 could hardly have appeared if it had not been for John L. Hill’s revolutionary development, which had remained forgotten.
Apparently, Hill thought about everything for a long time, and it is obvious that he did not like all this. And then he went to a truly revolutionary step: a traditional box store was placed in a very unusual place - on the upper surface of the receiver. To increase the ammunition, the cartridges in it were located perpendicular to the axis of the barrel, bullets to the left. Therefore, it seems that a completely ordinary two-row magazine with a completely acceptable length in its submachine gun could hold as many 50 cartridges as 9x19 mm Parabellum against the usual 30-32.
Swivel mechanism
By itself, the store of John L. Hill's submachine gun was practically no different from the stores for other submachine guns. However, there was a knot in the submachine gun itself, which none of the then samples of this weapon had, namely, a turning mechanism, by means of which the cartridges were fed inward through an opening in the receiver. At the same time, before unloading, they turned on 90 °, for which a special feeder rotating in a horizontal plane was provided in the design of the submachine gun. It turned out that the cartridge under its own weight fell on the tray of this feeder, which was mechanically connected to the gate, and as it moved, it began to rotate and unroll the cartridge by a bullet forward. Then the bolt with a special projection was sent to the chamber of a submachine gun and fired.
At first glance, such a device significantly increased the complexity of the design, but in fact the new submachine gun turned out to be quite reliable and worked almost without delay. The rate of fire was also quite acceptable - 450-500 shots per minute.
With the exception of the original design store, John L. Hill’s development as a whole did not contain any special innovations (“John Hill’s experimental submachine guns” 12 December 2017). Automatic equipment had a free gate with a drummer, which was rigidly fixed to the gate. The receiver was a simple rectangular shape, the box was wooden, in the best traditions of its time. The hole for the ejection of the sleeves was located in the lower part of the receiver, so that the spent cartridges fell out of the weapon due to their own weight.
Met without enthusiasm
John Hill offered his submachine gun to the US military in 1953.
The scheme of the patent of John L. Hill, which shows the flow of ammunition from above and the mechanism of their turn.
However, Hill’s proposal did not arouse any enthusiasm among the military. And that is why: in the army there were truly huge stocks of submachine guns left from the war. It was planned to switch to new ammunition, new automatic rifles, and to abandon submachine guns altogether. So the 1953 model of the year was made only in a few copies and that was all ...
However, John L. Hill continued to pursue his brainchild. At the end of the fifties, he completed the new submachine gun H15 or M 1960. And this time, he offered it to the police, while stressing its compactness and large ammunition.
Diagram of the overall structure of the submachine gun from the patent of John L. Hill.
Cartridges for H15 used .380 ACP (9x17 mm). At the same time in the store with a double filling of them were 35 pieces. Now the wooden box had a submachine gun. Under the receiver was a pistol grip, and a hollow, through which the cartridge cases were thrown away, which was a very original decision.
A total of approximately 100 H15 submachine guns were made. However, the police leadership also did not contact him. Therefore, all samples went for recycling, and those that are preserved are collection rarities.
Hill submachine gun and Uzi
When comparing the design of the J. L. Hill's submachine gun and Uzi, it is clearly seen how compact the first is than the second. And he brought it to mind, after that the United States would have been leading the market for compact submachine guns for special units and bodyguards for a very long time. But what did not happen, that did not happen.
John L. Hill’s H15 Submachine Gun (top) and the Uzi Submachine Gun (bottom)
Submachine gun P90 company FN
But it is obvious that the technical solutions incorporated in H15, very much resemble ... technical solutions that FN engineers used in their P90 submachine gun (article on "VO" "Submachine gun FN P90" from 5 March 2013 g.), developed in 1986 — 1987. Belgian engineers. The only thing in which they are noticeably different, well, except for the overall appearance, of course, this is a system for turning rounds. Hill invented a special mechanism for this, whereas on the P90 submachine gun the cartridges are turned on the store itself. However, in all other respects, including the very principle of the location of the store and their supply, the two samples are very similar. Similar is the cartridge case of spent cartridges through the hollow handle of the pistol grip fire control.
Submachine gun FN P90 without a magazine.
Standard P90 with store. Thanks to a special integrated collimator sight, one can shoot from it, having both eyes open. The possibility of firing is fully preserved at night and in low light due to the tritium capsule.
Р90 "Tactical", equipped with a Picattini-bar type MIL-STD-1913.
The latter, however, is not surprising. Because there is information that even in the mid-sixties, JL Hill was invited to FN and even managed to convince him to donate his H15 to them for study.
By the way, Р90 subsequently with good reason entered the 4 generation of submachine guns of the generation, one of the characteristics of which was the high specialization of its individual samples. If before that, it was a kind of tradition to create a kind of universal submachine gun for the needs of both the army and the police, then a trend emerged, the direction of which became highly specialized submachine guns with various targets.
Thus, the main difference of Р90 from all its other “older and younger fellows” was the caliber of its new cartridge SS190 (5,7 × 28 mm), the advantages of which include high penetrating power and low probability of ricocheting. The initial speed up to 715 m / s and the pointed shape allow his bullet to punch modern bullet-proof vests made of titanium and Kevlar, from a distance of 20 meters.
Cartridges for Р90. On the pistol does not look like ...
Rene Predazer will receive a patent for the magazine, and he will also be installed on top of the receiver and has a capacity of 50 cartridges. Conveniently, it is made of transparent plastic, so the shooter can clearly see how much he spent the ammunition. That's just the node turning the cartridges is on the store, which makes it technically more difficult than regular stores with direct feed cartridges. But its capacity is captivating: after all, 50 is much more than 30 and 32 ... By the way, despite the massive appearance of a submachine gun even with a magazine for 50, the Belgians did not have a heavy and fully equipped 3,1 kg (standard version) and 3,2 kg (tactical).
Shop with a device for turning rounds for Р90.
The effective range of fire, which indicates the company FN, is equal to 200 m, well, and its rate of fire, again, according to the company is equal to 850-1100 shots per minute. The fire is conducted from a closed bolt, which improves the accuracy of shooting, which, by the way, is already very high, as the tests of 2002 and 2003 showed by experts from NATO member countries.
Р90 with a long barrel and three Pikattini slats.
Today, this submachine gun is in service with special units of 33 countries of the world, and this is despite the fact that the weapon is not cheap and this is probably the main drawback of this PP - the cost of its production is 3 times higher than the cost of a modern assault rifle and 5-7 times higher than the cost of a submachine gun type "Uzi", which means that its sale price is much higher ...
Girls of the Peruvian Army with Kalashnikovs and Р90 in 2000
To be continued ...
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