40mm Hughes Lockless

General Ammunition Discussion
#1

Recently added this fantastic 40mm Hughes-Lockless display round to my collection and I am looking for some further information on it.
I am familiar with the more typical rifle caliber Hughes-Lockless cartridge but did not know this massive 40mm variant existed.

The body is made out of a hard clear plastic that has yellowed, marked “HUGHES U.S.A.F. 40MM LOCKLESS” on both sides. It can also be disassembled by sliding the 2 side panels down and out of the dovetail joint. The 2 halves can them be pulled apart revealing 2 black foam inserts to represent the 2 main powder charges, with the smaller primer charge directly below the projectile made from extruded plastic. No primer as it was probably lost long ago.

The projectile seems to be a WW2 era 40mm HE-T projectile, painted red with a dummy fuze plug and a solid steel plug screwed into the bottom of the projectile. The very nose is marked “DNP-5”, drive band marked “MK2 1-1 LOT1416”. Tracer plug marked “434055C” with a nice Hughes “H” stamp.

Compared with a 20x102mm. Lucan, it’s quite the brick! Any further information would be greatly appreciated!

Rhys

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4 Likes
#2

Great item. Thanks for sharing.

1 Like
#3

Excellent find! Pictures are great, thanks for sharing.

The 40 mm encapsulated was made for a program sponsored by the Air Force Armament Laboratory, Eglin AFB. This configuration allowed a 136% increase in energy per pound of ammunition over the standard 40 mm Bofors with no increase in cartridge volume. Firing was done with a single shot test figure using a standard Bofors barrel.

Primer used was a .50 Cal. No. 35.

Regards,

Fede

2 Likes
#4

Fantastic info Fede, as usual!

So this gun was sponsored by the USAF but was it meant as an aircraft armament or as an AA gun?

Also time to find a primer too!

#5

Rhys, could you tell the exact “case length” of this one?

#6

Wow! That is amazing.
Zac

1 Like
#7

Alex, the case is exactly 9” / 228mm long.

#8

Rhys, thanks a lot! This rounds up the images and basic data for this one.
Thank you for sharing this one with us.

1 Like
#9

Of course, my pleasure!!

Certainly one of the more unique items I got recently, and I will have a few more to post soon as well.

#10

Eglin was interested in the lockless gun concept for aircraft guns because of the advantages of weight reduction, space utilization and cost. Since this happened in the early 70’s, I think someone may have considered using this system in the AC-130 aircraft. That would have been impressive!

Regards,

Fede

1 Like
#11

Fantastic Fede, thank you very much!

I figured it must have been an aircraft armament but thought it was quite large. Something like an AC-130 makes much more sense however.