Among weapons legends, Eugene Stoner stands out as one of the best American small arms designers of the post-war period. During his long life, he created many wonderful models of assault rifles and carbines of various classes, but the most famous was the Armalite AR-15 assault rifle, the general public more familiar with the M-16 index. Among the military, his authority is comparable with Mikhail Kalashnikov.
Biography
Eugene Stoner is a Native American. He was born November 22, 1922 in a typical agricultural region, the town of Gosport (Indiana), whose population still does not exceed 1000 people. He should have been a respectable farmer, but the boy from school was drawn to mechanics.
The first place of work was Vega Aircraft, a subsidiary of the Lockheed Aircraft Company. Stoner Eugene was installing weapons on airplanes. When the United States entered World War II, the young man was sent to the Air Force Ammunition unit of the Marine Corps. He served in the South Pacific, and towards the end of the war, in the north of China, which housed several US air bases.
At the end of 1945, Eugene Stoner was invited to work in the mechanical workshop of the Whittaker aircraft manufacturing company, where he worked as a design engineer. In 1954, the young man became the chief engineer of a small arms company ArmaLite. His tasks included the development of promising weapons and the sale of licenses to large manufacturers.
Rifle AR-5
In the 1950s, the U.S. Air Force created the strategic six-engine bomber XB-70. For flight crews it was required to develop a light compact weapon in case of emergency. The most promising was the AR-5 model, presented by the American designer Eugene Stoner. The bolt-action bolt-action rifle was made of lightweight plastics and aluminum alloys and fit freely in cramped cockpits.
However, while creating the bomber, in the USSR they tested the ground-to-air missile and the XB-70 became too vulnerable for the opponent’s air defense. The project was closed, and therefore, an order for the production of rifles was not received.
Creating AR-10
Eugene Stoner did not think to lose heart. By that time, he had developed a series of prototypes of small arms and developed his own design style. His technical solutions were elegant and effective, which had a positive effect on the convenience and characteristics of the weapon.
In the 1950s, the command announced a competition to develop the main small arms for the US Army to replace the obsolete M1 Garand. An important condition was the compatibility of NATO 7.62 × 51 mm cartridges with the new model.
In 1956, ArmaLite presented their development - AR-10. It used innovative solutions. Thanks to the use of composite materials and stamped parts from alloy alloy in the design, the rifle turned out to be surprisingly light and at the same time stable when firing due to the ergonomic shape. Experts testing the prototype claimed the AR-10 was the best automatic weapon ever tested by the Armory.
The failure that led to victory
However, the brainchild of Eugene Stoner, with all the enthusiasm and objective advantages, lost the M-14 rifle in the competition. There were several reasons. Firstly, ArmaLite joined the fight at the final stage and there was simply not enough time to eliminate minor design flaws. Secondly, the director of the company sent the wrong product for testing, as a result one of the parts burst. The problem was quickly fixed, but an unpleasant residue remained. By the way, the famous Belgian rifle FN FAL also dropped out of the competition, which later became even more popular (than the M-14) in European NATO countries. This may indicate a certain bias in the military commission.
Nevertheless, experts unanimously recognized the promise of the concept of Eugene Stoner and advised further development of this area. Later, the Dutch company Artillerie Inrichtingen bought the license for AR-10 and produced weapons until 1960. In total, a little less than 10, 000 copies were released.
The progenitor M-16
At the request of the U.S. military, ArmaLite redesigned the AR-10 for a smaller caliber 5.56 × 45 mm cartridge. The already lightweight semi-automatic rifle has become even more compact and convenient. It is widely used aluminum alloys and synthetic materials. Thanks to the ingenious gas exhaust system and the smaller caliber of cartridges, it was possible to achieve outstanding accuracy when firing in bursts, and a long barrel with complex cutting allowed to increase accuracy at long distances.
The product is assigned the index AR-15. Later, Colt acquired the rights to production and, after a number of improvements based on the Stoner design, released the M-16 model, which became the main one for the US army and allies.
