#clyde farrell

Clyde Farrell’s Rocket Machine Gun

Thirty years before the emergence of the GyroJet rocket-powered pistol and rifle concept another inventor gained some notoriety for his own rocket gun system. 

In July, 1934 Modern Mechanix magazine hails a new machine gun “hardly heavier than an air rifle” (3.5 lbs) that was capable of 700 rounds per minute. Farrell claimed his gun had almost no recoil and never overheated.

The later, marginally more successful, GyroJet (source)

The article states that a firing pin ignited the rocket ammunition, which begs the question of how the weapon’s action was cycled. Farrell’s weapon fed from an “endless chain” held together by an aluminium wire feed - this isn’t depicted in the photograph that accompanied the article (see above). If the weapon used a double action trigger to recock the action this would mean it is not a machine gun. Its unlikely the rocket ammunition would have generated enough power to also power a mechanism to pull the next round into the action. Similarly, if the rocket ignited in the barrel then the claim that the gun does not overheat would also be false.

The short article concludes by stating models of Farrell’s weapon had been tested and sent to the US Patent office to “meet final patent requirements”. Sadly, I was unable to find Farrell’s patent - it seems unlikely that he would have been granted one. The fate of Mr Farrell and his rocket machine gun is unknown.

Source:

‘Machine Gun Fires Rocket Bullets’, Modern Mechanix, July, 1934, (source)