AK47 derived from Garand

[dalek]

I have read in many places that "Kalashnikov designed a semi-automatic carbine, heavily influenced by American M1 Garand rifle." So, what was "heavily influenced" from the Garand?

The Gas system?
The Gas piston?
The Trigger group (put them side by side)?
The rotating bolt?
The charging handle?
How the barrel is installed onto the trunnion/receiver (accounting for both the milled and the flat designs)?
The location of the recoil system?
The Safety selector?

 

[Djstorm100]

I always heard he stole the design from the Sturmgewehr?

It was.

 

[IUHoosier429]

Read The Gun by C.J. Chivers. An excellent look at the development of the venerable avtomat kalashnikova.

 

[cubrock]

It was.

Seems only fair since the Germans stole the idea for the G43/K43 from the SVT40.

 

[Dirtydirtysouf]

I always heard he stole the design from the Sturmgewehr?

This

 

[RedneckFur]

From what I remember, the AK was inspired by a lot of contemporary designs. Sturmgewher and the Remington model 8 were heavy influences.

 

[Ikarus1]

Firearms Industry as a whole is largely derivative from within. JMB was one exception. Eugene Stoner is another. The AK was and continues to be a product of it's own success. Cheap to make (once outside the US), easy to use, minute of man accuracy, and nearly impossible for a trained monkey to destroy over the course of a duty tour.

 

[myst173]

I'm sure there is some influence from it, but then again weapons design and improvements are typically based off what's there before. As far as the general lay out, the gas piston being on top with barrel on bottom was not a stg unique layout there were already Russian arms in use in ww1/ww2 with that. Detachable box mag, already in use, rotating bolt for locking pretty much standard design in everything from bolt actions to most automatics then. Going with a stamping rather than a forged receiver, sten, m3, pps, sterling, soumi, etc, that was par for the course in rapid production and low costs at the time.
Worst case he cribbed ideas from different designs, took the good parts of them and combined them into a simple, rugged, reliable platform that lent itself to mass production, widespread adoption and ease of training and use across multiple geographic areas, nationalities and skill levels. Some of the anti arms proliferation organizations throw out the scary fact that somewhere around 1 out of every 3 guns ever produced is an AK platform series gun.

 

[rufrdr]

I always heard he stole the design from the Sturmgewehr?

Two different designs filling the same roll.