Eugene Stoner
American machinist and designer of the AR-15 and M16 rifle.
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Stoner held over 100 patents in small arms and was a member of the US Army Ordnance Corps' Ordnance Hall of Fame.[1] Eugene Morrison Stoner was born on November 22, 1922, in Gosport, Indiana, to a middle-class family.[2][1]
Life and work
After graduating from Long Beach Polytechnical High School in California, Stoner worked as a machinist for Vega Aircraft Company.[2][1] During World War II, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps as an armourer, gaining experience with heavy-caliber automatic weapons.[2][1] Stoner completed initial design work on the ArmaLite AR-10 in 1955, a lightweight select-fire infantry rifle.[3] The AR-10 was submitted for US Army evaluation trials late in 1956 but was rejected in favor of the T44.[3]
Stoner left ArmaLite in 1961 and later designed the Stoner 63 Weapons System at Cadillac Gage.[3] He co-founded ARES Incorporated in 1972 and left in 1989 after designing the Ares Light Machine Gun.[4] In 1990, he joined Knight's Armament Company to create the Stoner Rifle-25.[5]
What the cited sources add
The Independent obituary notes that Stoner first met Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1990 at Dulles International Airport for a Smithsonian video history program.[1] They spent over a week together answering questions about their designs and creativity.[1] The obituary describes Stoner as "the master of the obvious" who could conceptualize how parts would have to be made.[1] It states that Stoner's genius lay in his ability to adapt and combine technologies to create something new.[1]
The obituary also reports that Stoner once said he would not hire himself in today's labor market because a university degree is now required.[1] Stoner died in Palm City, Florida on April 24, 1997.[1]
References
- "Obituary: Eugene Stoner", The Independent, May 30, 1997. facts only, no text reused. independent.co.uk
- Wikipedia, "Eugene Stoner" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Obituary: Eugene Stoner", The Independent, May 30, 1997 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Eugene Stoner" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Chivers, "The Gun", Simon and Schuster, 2010, p. 292–295 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Eugene Stoner" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rottman, "The M16", Osprey Publishing, January 1, 2011, p. 9 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Eugene Stoner" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lewis, "The Gun Digest Book of Assault Weapons", Krause Publications Craft, January 1, 2004, p. 49 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Eugene Stoner (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Eugene Stoner (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the , each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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