The MG 131 (shortened from German: Maschinengewehr 131, or "Machine rifle 131") was a 13 mm machine gun developed in 1938 by Rheinmetall-Borsig and produced from 1940 to 1945. The MG 131 was designed for use at fixed or flexible, single or twin mountings in Luftwaffe aircraft during World War II, and could be considered to be the Luftwaffe's rough equivalent of the M2 Browning machine gun. The M2 machine gun with a tripod weighs 58 kg (128 lb). ... Combatants Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000,000 Total... Rheinmetall is a German defense company with factories in Düsseldorf and Unterlüß. It has a long tradition of making guns and artillery pieces. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The word calibre (British English) or caliber (American English) designates the interior diameter of a tube or the exterior diameter of a wire or rod. ... In firearms terminology, an action is the system of operation that the firearm employs to seal the breech (in a breech-loading firearm), and to load consecutive rounds. ... Recoil operation is a type of locked-breech firearm actions used in automatic firearms. ... The short-recoil system of operation is that which uses the recoil of the firearm to function (that is, to lock/unlock the firearms breech, to extract and eject the cartridge case from the firearm, to feed a new cartridge into the chamber, and to ready the firing mechanism). ... The Rate of fire is the speed at which a specific firearm or artillery piece can operate. ... A guns muzzle velocity is the speed at which the projectile leaves the muzzle of the gun. ... A belt feeding into an M249 machine gun, from an Army training manual A belt feeding into a M1919A4 from a wooden ammo box A belt is an ammunition feeding device for a firearm. ... A machine gun is a fully-automatic firearm that is capable of firing bullets in rapid succession. ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Rheinmetall is a German defense company with factories in Düsseldorf and Unterlüß. It has a long tradition of making guns and artillery pieces. ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... This does not cite its references or sources. ... Combatants Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000,000 Total... This article is about the . ...

It was installed in the Messerschmitt Bf 109, Me 410 Hornisse, Fw 190, Ju 88, He 177 Greif bomber, and many other aircraft. The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was a World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt in the early 1930s. ... The Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse (Hornet) was a Luftwaffe heavy fighter and Schnellbomber of World War II developed from the badly flawed Me 210. ... The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger (Butcher-bird) was a single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft of the Luftwaffe, and one of the best fighters of its generation. ... The Junkers Ju 88 was a WW2 Luftwaffe twin-engine multi-role aircraft. ... Captured Heinkel He 177 A-5 The Heinkel He 177 Greif (Griffin) was a twin-engine long-range World War 2 bomber of the Luftwaffe. ...

The MG 131 fired electrically primed ammunition in order to sustain a high rate of fire when shooting through the propeller disk of a single-engined fighter. A pair of MG 131 machine guns was used as cowl armament on later models of the Bf 109G (which originally required one blister or Beule on each side of the fuselage to house the larger breech of the new gun) and the Fw 190.

Technical data

• Weight : 16.6 kg
• Length : 1.17 m
• Muzzle velocity : ~ 750 m/s
• Rate of fire : ~ 900 rounds per minute

• 13 mm APT 710 m/s, projectile mass 38.5 g, muzzle energy 9700 joules
• 13 mm API 710 m/s, projectile mass 38 g, muzzle energy 9580 joules
• 13 mm HEI-t with 1.4 g PETN + 0.3 g thermite 750 m/s, projectile mass 34 g, muzzle energy 9560 joules

BIC pen cap, about 1 gram. ... The joule (IPA pronunciation: or ) (symbol: J) is the SI unit of energy. ... PETN (Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate, also known as Penthrite) is one of the strongest known high explosives, with a relative effectiveness factor (R.E. factor) of 1. ... A thermite mixture using Iron Oxide A thermite reaction is a type of aluminothermic reaction in which aluminium metal is oxidized by the oxide of another metal, most commonly iron oxide. ...

See also

• List of firearms
• List of common WW2 weapons

Located below is an extended list of small arms, ranging from pistols to machine guns and even to large handheld devices such as grenade launchers and anti-tank rifles. ... This page lists the common infantry weapons used by the various armies engaged in World War II. // Handguns Enfield Revolver No. ...

External links

• Image
• http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Waffen/Bilderseiten/bordwaffen-R.htm
• http://prodocs.netfirms.com/
• http://library.thinkquest.org/C006001/armament/mg131.html
• http://www.geocities.com/Augusta/8172/panzerfaust5.htm#mg131