Russel Robinson

Robinson demonstrating his SR-9 in the United Kingdom
Russel Shepherd Robinson
Biographical information
Nationality	New Zealand
Born	1911 New Zealand
Died	1998 (aged 86/87) Arizona, U.S.
Affiliations
Associated companies	Lithgow Small Arms Factory RSAF Enfield Colt
Role(s)	Aeronautical engineer Designer
Notable works	Robinson SR-11 Robinson SR-9 Robinson SR-14
Other information
Other name(s)	Russ Robinson

Russel Shepherd Robinson was a New Zealand-born Australian aeronautical engineer and firearms designer.

History

Robinson was born in New Zealand in 1911; some years after his birth, his family moved to Australia. At the age of 9, his family moved to the United States of America, where he was educated and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1932 as an aeronautical engineer.

Robinson was a member of Admiral Richard Byrd's second expedition to Antarctica, but chose to stay in his native New Zealand instead of returning to the United States. He relocated to Australia again in 1937 to design garage equipment, before relocating again to the United Kingdom where he worked for Westland Aircraft and the Bristol Aeroplane Company. He then returned to Australia where he was drafted into the Royal Australian Air Force.

During the war, Robinson experimented with various constant recoil designs, being contracted by the Army Inventions Directorate to design a pistol based on a prototype machine pistol; this became the S.R. Models 8 and 10 and eventually the S.R. Model 11, which was not adopted. He also designed an anti-materiel rifle intended for use by truck crews but was also not adopted.

After development of his weapons ceased, he moved back to the United States and worked with Colt in developing the M73 machine gun and the CR-26 automatic cannon. He retired to Arizona in the late 1970s but continued working as an industry and government consultant on small arms. He died in 1998.

Works

Robinson was known for his works with constant recoil arms design. His designs included the following:

• S.R. Model 2: anti-materiel rifle
• S.R. Model 5: heavy machine gun
• S.R. Model 6: medium machine gun
• S.R. Model 8: machine pistol
• S.R. Model 9: anti-materiel rifle
• S.R. Model 10: machine pistol
• S.R. Model 11: machine pistol
• S.R. Model 14: heavy machine gun
• S.R. Model 16: machine pistol
• S.R. Model 21: coaxial tank medium machine gun
• CR-26 automatic cannon: chaingun
• S.R. Model 33: tank medium machine gun