Parabellum MG 14

The Parabellum MG14 was a 7.9 mm caliber World War I machine gun built by Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken. It was a complete redesign of the Maschinengewehr 08 machine gun (itself an adaptation of the Maxim gun) system intended for use on aircraft and zeppelins that used a toggle action that broke upwards rather than downwards opposite the MG 08, making for a much more compact receiver. The fusee spring was dispensed with for an internal spring design, the breech block was completely different and the shells dropped out the bottom of the receiver rather than forward through a hole in receiver. There appears to be no action or receiver parts interchangeable with the MG 08. The MG08's belt-style ammunition feed was enclosed in a drum, the recoil casing was lightened, and the cooling jacket was modified for air- instead of water-cooling. The rate of fire was 700 rounds/minute. The belt was reduced to 30 mm in width.

A MG14 was used in the early development of the German version of the gun synchroniser by Anthony Fokker. The MG14 was used with the first version of the pioneering Fokker Stangensteuerung synchronizer on the Fokker E.I pre-production prototypes, but as the limited supplies of the weapon were more urgently needed for observers in reconnaissance aircraft, and defensive gunners aboard Zeppelins and heavier-than-air bombers it was thus reserved for flexible mounts, where its combination of light weight and high rate of fire were most useful.