Been seeing many nice isabelle arts on twitter since she was announced to be in smash, so of course i had to make a thing too!
but if isabelle’s on the train…. and i’m on the train…
last month i saw someone with a bandana+eyepatch isabelle icon and i’ve been unable to forget
Bunnies! bunnies! bunnies! Drawings from Sunday’s life Drawings @gallerygirlsla always fun to draw some fun facial expressions on bunny girls :) you can find all the drawings on my Patreon full res! Thank you! #reiq #art #drawingbunniesxasino #sexy #lifedrawing #gallerygirls #losangeles #facialexpressions #pencil #art #drawing #graphitedrawing #stockings #stockingsfetish #anime #characterdesign (at Pasadena, California)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnpD5uFFs6S/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=r6q5qk4wzu7b
I was recently doing some research into the ArmaLite AR-10 and early AR-15 prototypes and while looking at the original patents for the guns I came across the patents for both rifles’ handguards. I thought it would be interesting to compare the two.
Both of the handguards were designed for the same purpose, to provide a lightweight forend that would protect soldiers’ hands and allow air to circulate around and cool the barrel. With background in the aircraft industry ArmaLite’s main engineers put new technologies to good use and were ahead of the curve in their use of fibreglass reinforced plastic shells filled with rigid plastic foam for the AR-10′s furniture.
George C. Sullivan patented his handguards for the AR-10 in May 1957, explaining that:
“It has been found that during extended endurance firing tests, a gun barrel can exceed 1,000 F. If equipped with the usual wood forearm, there is the danger that it could burst into flames. If equipped with a metal forearm, it would get too hot to handle. When the temperature of the forearm becomes excessive, either the rifleman cannot hold it or the heat rays given off by the forearm rise and interfere with sighting of the weapon.”
Sullivan’s patented handguard comprised of a fibreglass resin shell with a reflective foil, described as being .003 inches (0.07mm) thick, inside. The shell was perforated by a series of holes, at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock which were designed to allow air to enter a ‘cooling chamber’.
The space
age fibreglass polymer furniture used by ArmaLite was developed by Sullivan and later improved (and possibly initially developed) by Tom Tellefson, a plastics engineer. This full length handguard was seen on the early AR-10Bs and the early Dutch production models.
Sullivan’s patent explains the handguard’s construction describing a:
“laminated sandwich construction. The outer surface of the body of the forearm [13] is preferably formed by fiber glass molded skin [15] for reinforcing of the structure or for greater strength. Positioned between reflector foil [14] and fiber glass skin [15], is a layer [10] of isocyanate foam for the purpose of thermal insulation.”
In
June 1957, when Fairchild, ArmaLite’s
parent company, sold a production license to the Dutch small arms manufacturer Artillerie Inrichtingen (AI) this handguard design was part of the technical data package which was transferred.

M.A Bakker’s shortened handguard patent c.1959/60 (source)
Once production began in the Netherlands at AI, Dutch engineers also began improving the rifle. Sullivan’s handguard patent is cited by AI engineer Marinus A. Bakker’s patent filed in August 1960, and granted in January 1963. Bakker’s shortened handguard had a new attachment method and added a "metallic inner tube having mounting means for supporting itself on the barrel, a heat insulating sleeve of synthetic material surrounding said inner tube.”
Four months after Bakker’s patent was granted in the US, Eugene Stoner, the AR-10′s designer was granted a new patent for a triangular forend. This triangle shaped handguard would become an instantly recognisable element of the early iconic AR-15/M16s.
Stoner’s patent, granted in May 1963, was filed in June 1960, before he left ArmaLite for Colt in 1961. When Colt put the AR-15 into production, they used Stoner’s triangular handguard.
In march 1958, US Army evaluations made a series of suggestions for changes to the XAR-15. One of these was to improve the single-piece conical fibreglass handguard used on the early XAR-15 prototypes. Stoner replaced this one-piece forend with a two-piece removable type which was secured with knurled spring-loaded ring - the precursor to the slip-ring/delta ring. This was not yet the classic smooth handguard that we are familiar with, early developmental forends had lateral-running grooves. The triangular shape is ergonomic and provides an excellent gripping surface to ensure control while firing.
Stoner explains in his 1963 patent that the object of his design was to:
“provide a hand guard for guns of the aforementioned character which is characterized by the fact that it is of extremely light weight, has a minimum number of component parts, and achieves the desired ends of both providing adequate cooling for the barrel of the gun and eliminating the possibility of the burning of the hand of the soldier firing the same.”
Stoner’s two-piece ‘clamshell’ design was intended to be made from “phenolic resin impregnated material such as fiberglass fibers, or the like“ and had 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock air holes. It was intended to create an insulated chamber in which the air heated by the barrel would cause the ‘aspiration of cooling air’ over the barrel and through the chamber moving heat away from the barrel. The chamber acts to isolate the barrel from the user’s hand.
Stoner’s 1963 patent handguard would remain the civilian AR-15 and military M16′s standard forend into the 1980s when it was finally surplanted by a return to the cylindrical handguard, similar in essence to Sullivan’s, in the M16A2.
Sources:
‘Gun Forearm’, G.C. Sullivan, US Patent #2,965,994, 27th Dec. 1960, (source)
‘Hand Guard for Rifles‘, M.A.Bakker, US Patent #3,075,314, 29th Jan. 1963, (source)
‘Hand Guard Construction’, E.M. Stoner, US Patent #3,090,150, 21st May 1963, (source)
The Armalite AR-10: World’s Finest Battle Rifle, J. Putnam Evans (2016)
The Black Rifle: M16 Retrospective, E. Ezell & R. Blake Stevens (1987)
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