AK47 inventor Kalashnikov dies at 94

[VonBudí]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25497013

The inventor of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, Mikhail Kalashnikov, has died aged 94, Russian officials say.

The automatic rifle he designed became one of the world's most familiar and widely used weapons.

Its comparative simplicity made it cheap to manufacture, as well as reliable and easy to maintain.

Although honoured by the state, Kalashnikov made little money from his gun. He once said he would have been better off designing a lawn mower.

Kalashnikov was admitted to hospital with internal bleeding in November.

He died on Monday in Izhevsk, Udmurtia, where he lived, an official there said.

Matching the Germans
Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov was born on 10 November 1919 in western Siberia, one of 18 children.


He was called up by the Red Army in 1938, and his design skills were used to improve the effectiveness of weapons and equipment used by Soviet tank regiments.

He designed the machine gun after being asked by a fellow soldier why the Russians could not come up with a gun that would match the ones used by the Germans.

Work on the AK47 was completed in 1947, and two years later the gun was adopted by the Soviet army.

Kalashnikov continued working into his late 80s as chief designer at the Izhevsk firm that first built the AK-47.

He received many state honours, including the Order of Lenin and the Hero of Socialist Labour.

Kalashnikov refused to accept responsibility for the many people killed by his weapon, blaming the policies of other countries that acquired it.

However, pride in his invention was tempered with sadness at its use by criminals and child soldiers.

"It is painful for me to see when criminal elements of all kinds fire from my weapon," Kalashnikov said in 2008.

Ak47 explained by nicholas cage



RIP

 

[supermanlives]

helped neighbor work on several aks . sights need updating. great gun with a few mods. my other friend is a gunsmith who did most of the work.great fun blasting off rounds through the old car at the range at his pad.

 

[unregistered190]

Fun to shoot for sure!

 

[Pinball Wizard]

[YOUTUBEIF]HKv6GQvyWW8[/YOUTUBEIF]

 

[The OrigF/clred]

I've actually met Kalashnikov at a trade show in the middle east. The russians were parading him around the world at Defense Arms exhibits, kind of like dragging Reggie Jackson or Mickey Mantle around to baseball themed exhibits if they're a company spokesman.

he was inspecting a product an american company was repping (his assistant had come over first to arrange the inspection, wanted to make sure there'd be someone there knowledgeable in the product to show it to his boss.

Real nice low key soft spoken guy. His intepreter / assistant gave me a pack of russian post cards, a set of different shots of him with the AKs he'd designed