Flush with its first success, ArmaLite believed its new rifle had applications beyond a survival scenario, imagining the AR-5 in the hands of paratroopers or supplied to guerilla fighters behind enemy lines. In 1956 the Air Force adopted the AR-5 as the MA-1. and was slightly more than 14" long disassembled. Its 14" barrel attached to the aluminum alloy receiver with a threaded collar, a knurled-head bolt attached the stock to the receiver and the whole thing could be assembled without tools. ArmaLite called it the “pack-in-stock” concept. The centerpiece of the AR-5 was a hollowed-out fiberglass stock, which built on George Sullivan’s experiments with synthetic stock materials, into which the action and barrel could be stowed to make a compact package that would float in water. 22 Hornet concept (an original ArmaLite photograph shows Eugene Stoner at his work bench with an M4 lying beside an AR-5 prototype), the rest was a radical new design. Following its protocol of naming new models, ArmaLite called it the “AR-5.” ArmaLite put its engineers on the project, and within a month the Air Force had a working prototype in its hands for evaluation. Among the requirements specified was that the new rifle would float. Within a month of establishment of the ArmaLite Division, the Air Force put out a call for a new takedown survival rifle. 22 Hornet/.410 that folded to the length of its 14" barrels and was manufactured by Ithaca.Įarly Costa Mesa, Calif., produced AR-7 rifles, such as the one shown here with its original box, exhibit a brown stock coloration that, according to Blue Book of Gun Values, commands a premium in today’s marketplace.Īs a division of Fairchild, ArmaLite had its eye on Air Force contracts. A few years later, a second design was adopted. and disassembled into a two-piece package the size of its 13.5" barrel. The rifle featured a sliding wire stock and a barrel that screwed into place at an index mark on the receiver and was secured in place by a thumb screw. Designated M4, the magazine-fed bolt-action, manufactured by Harrington & Richardson, was chambered in. The newly independent Air Force designed its first purpose-built survival rifle in 1949. In the nuclear age that followed World War II, America’s fleet of long-range strategic bombers began operating over thousands of miles of uninhabited terrain. 410 bore over-and-unders with plastic Tenite stocks to bomber and transport crews flying in the Pacific theater. The Army Air Corps later issued 15,000 Stevens Model 24. pilots were already carrying in their shoulder holsters. 45 ACP shot cartridges (M12 and M15) that would function in the M1911s U.S. Sauer drilling in 9.3x74 mm R and 12 gauge to their fliers operating in North Africa. Each country sought a different solution. During World War II, as aircraft range had increased and aircrews traveled longer distances over uninhabited terrain, the Air Force realized the need for a survival weapon.
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