Editing Vickers machine gun (section)

===Use in aircraft===
[[File:Vickers Challenger synchroniser (Bristol Scout).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The cockpit of a [[Bristol Scout]] biplane in 1916, showing a Vickers machine gun synchronised to fire through the propeller by an early Vickers-Challenger [[synchronization gear|interrupter gear]].]]
In 1913, a Vickers machine gun was mounted on the experimental [[Vickers E.F.B.1]] [[biplane]], which was probably the world's first purpose-built combat aeroplane. However, by the time the production version, the [[Vickers F.B.5]], had entered service the following year, the armament had been changed to a Lewis gun.<ref>{{cite book |last=Driver |first=Hugh |title=The Birth of Military Aviation: Britain, 1903–1914|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbrA5NJp2JMC&pg=PA128 |date=1997 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |isbn=978-0-86193-234-4 |pages=126 |access-date=27 November 2014}}</ref>

During World War I, the Vickers gun became a standard weapon on British and French [[military aircraft]], especially after 1916, initially in a single gun configuration ([[Nieuport 17]], [[SPAD VII]], [[Sopwith Triplane]]), increased to a twin-gun standard in later war fighters ([[Nieuport 28]], [[SPAD XIII]], [[Sopwith Camel]]), with exceptions such as the [[S.E.5]], which had a single synchronized Vickers and a Lewis gun mounted above the upper wing. Although heavier than the Lewis, its [[closed bolt]] firing cycle made it much easier to [[synchronization gear|synchronise]] to allow it to fire through aircraft [[Propeller (aircraft)|propellers]]. The belt feed was enclosed right up to the gun's feed-way to inhibit the effect of wind. Steel disintegrating-link ammunition belts were perfected in the UK by [[William de Courcy Prideaux]] in mid-war and became standard for aircraft guns thereafter. From 1917 to 1919, French [[Manufacture d'armes de Châtellerault]] produced under license .303 Vickers machine guns (240 were delivered before the Armistice) but most of the French aircraft Vickers machine guns were British-made.<ref name="GBM145" />

By 1917 it had been determined that standard rifle calibre cartridges were less satisfactory for shooting down [[observation balloon]]s than larger calibres carrying [[Incendiary ammunition|incendiary]] or [[Tracer ammunition|tracer]] bullets; the Vickers machine gun was chambered in the [[11mm Vickers]] round, known as the ''Vickers aircraft machine gun'' and sometimes the "Balloon Buster", and was adopted by the Allies as a standard anti-balloon armament, used by both the British and French in this role until the end of the war.<ref name=Barnes>Frank C. Barnes, ''Cartridges of the World'', 15th ed, Gun Digest Books, Iola, 2016, {{ISBN|978-1-4402-4642-5}}.</ref><ref name=IWM>[https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30027115 Imperial War Museums, "11x59R: 11&nbsp;mm Gras Machine Gun & 11&nbsp;mm Vickers", ''iwm.org.uk''], retrieved 4 June 2018.</ref>

The famous [[Sopwith Camel]] and the [[SPAD XIII]] types used twin synchronized Vickers, as did most British and French fighters between 1918 and the mid-1930s. In the air, the weighty water-cooling system was rendered redundant by low temperatures at high altitude and the constant stream of air passing over the gun (and lack of any need for sustained fire such as employed by ground troops); but because the weapon relied on boosted barrel recoil, the (empty) water-holding barrel jacket or casing was retained. Several sets of louvered slots were cut into the barrel jacket to aid air cooling, a better solution than that which had initially been attempted with the 1915-vintage [[MG 08#Aircraft versions|lMG 08]] German aircraft ordnance.
[[File:From a B To Officer. a B Jack Rupert Boulton, One of Thousands Promoted From the Lower Deck To Meet the War-time Demand of Britain's Great and Expanding Navy. Boulton, a Dorsetman, Redheaded and 6 Ft Tall, Was A16402.jpg|thumb|left|Vickers Mk. II* or III in naval anti-aircraft service during WWII in the Mediterranean]]
In 1918 the slotted modified original barrel jacket was replaced with a slimmer jacket on the Mk. II version,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://vickersmg.blog/the-guns/303-inch-mk-ii |title=.303-inch Mk II – the Vickers Machine Gun |date=23 November 2017 }}</ref> and in 1927 a [[muzzle flash suppressor]] was added on the Mk. II*.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://vickersmg.blog/the-guns/303-inch-mk-ii-2 |title=.303-inch Mk II* - the Vickers Machine Gun |date=23 November 2017}}</ref>

As the machine gun armament of US and UK fighter aircraft moved from the fuselage to the wings in the years before  [[World War II]], the Vickers was generally replaced by the faster-firing and more reliable<ref>Chorlton, Martyn (2012). ''Hawker Hurricane Mk I-V''. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2012, Air Vanguard No. 6. {{ISBN|978-1-78096-603-8}}.</ref> [[M1919 Browning machine gun|Browning Model 1919]] using metal-linked cartridges. The [[Gloster Gladiator]] was the last RAF fighter to be armed with the Vickers, later replaced by Brownings.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_gloster_gladiator.html |title=Gloster Gladiator |first=J. |last=Rickard |encyclopedia=Military History Encyclopedia on the Web |date=21 March 2007 |access-date=20 February 2015}}</ref> The [[Fairey Swordfish]] was fitted with the weapon until production ended in August 1944.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bishop |first=Chris |year=2002 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MuGsf0psjvcC&q=Fairey+Swordfish+production+ended&pg=PA403 |title=The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II |publisher=Metrobooks |isbn=978-1-58663-762-0 |page=403}}</ref>

Several British bombers and attack aircraft of the Second World War mounted the [[Vickers K machine gun]] or VGO, a completely different design, resembling the Lewis gun in external appearance.

Vickers machine guns, designated as models E (pilot's) and F (observer's, fed from a [[pan magazine]]) were also used among others in Poland, where 777 of them were converted to [[7.92×57mm Mauser]] cartridge in 1933–1937.<ref>Konstankiewicz, Andrzej (1986), ''Broń strzelecka Wojska Polskiego 1918–39'', Warsaw {{ISBN|83-11-07266-3}}, p. 141 {{in lang|pl}}</ref>