The Vickers K machine gun, known as the Vickers Gas Operated or Gun, Machine, Vickers G.O. .303-inch in British service, was a rapid-firing machine gun developed and manufactured for use in aircraft by Vickers-Armstrongs. The high rate of fire was needed for the short period of time when the gunner would be able to fire at an attacking aircraft. The weapon was adopted for land use during World War II.
Used on a Fairey Battle light bomber
A Vickers K machine gun without its pan magazine in Batey ha-Osef Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel.
SAS returning from a 1943 patrol in North Africa with their twin-mounted Vickers K machine guns.
Beaufort L4461 'OA-J', of No. 22 Squadron RAF. The turret has a Vickers K machine gun; for protection against beam attacks, another K gun is mounted in the port entry hatch.
Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, with the remainder being divested as Vickers plc in 1977.
Vickers-Armstrong Works in Scotswood