Design Museum AK-47
I don't associate the Design Museum in London with guns, but one of the 13 classic designs it has recently added to its collection is the Kalashnikov AK-47 Rifle (title link). Developed in the mid 1940s by Mikhail Kalashnikov for use by Soviet Union troops in Arctic conditions, it became the most durable and cheaply manufactured assault rifle in the world, used by numerous armies and a favourite weapon among rebels, drug traffickers, terrorists and African boy soldiers (left). The Design Museum acquisition is of unknown Chinese manufacture, 1945-1946. Above is a diagram of the Chinese Type 56 AK-47. Retro gamers will be pleased that another of the latest acquisitions is a Taito Arcade Machine showing Tomohiro Nishikado's classic Space Invaders (c.1978).
posted by Unknown @ 4.12.11
2 comments
2 Comments:
Weapons such as firearms represent probably one of the greatest expressions of human ingenuity and creative faculty. The AK-47's elegance lies in its function and manufacture. It would be a strange aesthetic that deemed it physically beautiful but I think that woman lying in field, photographed by Mr. Haeberle would have appreciated one.
It is a design classic, like the Winchester '73 and the Colt .45. But it is rather sad that many of our most ingenious inventions concern ways of killing one another.
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