Tag Archives: ar-1 Parasniper

You know the AR-15, but what about the AR-1? How about the AR-9?

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The “AR” in each case does not stand for “assault rifle” as those who are uninformed often think. It is, in fact, short for Armalite, the firearms company that employed a generation of incredible forward-thinking gun designers, engineers, and inventors including Eugene Stoner, Charles Sullivan, Charles Dorchester, Arthur Miller, Daniel Musgrave, Robert Fremont and even the great Melvin Johnson (inventor of the M1941 Johnson rifle series).

Established in the early 1950s as a division of the Fairchild Airplane Corporation, the latter perhaps most famous today for their A-10 Warthog tank buster attack plane, Armalite leveraged aviation industry’s advances and applied them to firearms. Their engineers registered some of the first firearm patents incorporating foamed plastics in both stocks and handguards, aluminum receivers, self-lubricating alloy gun barrels, folding synthetic buttstocks, and other developments.

Before the original Armalite company tanked in 1983, they made it from the AR-1 to the AR-180, with lots of interesting stops in between to include bolt-action rifles, 22s, and even shotguns.

A better look at the whole AR lineage in my column at Guns.com.

Meet the first “AR”

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ArmaLite started in Hollywood of all places in 1954 as a division of the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Company and long before the iconic AR-10 and AR-15 came along, their first rifle was the AR-1 (ArmaLite Rifle-1) better known as the Parasniper.

The gun was designed by George Sullivan and Charles Dorchester (both of whom went on to pitch in with Eugene Sullivan on the AR-15) between 1948-54 to be a super lightweight sniper rifle, presumably for airborne and air assault troops. It used a foam-filled fiberglass stock and an aluminum alloy barrel with a steel liner to prevent over pressure ka-booms.

11287-SA.A.1The improved bolt-action (some used steel FN Mauser bolts while others have been seen with Remington 722 bolts) also made extensive use of alloys. Fitted with a commercial 4x Bushnell Chief scope, mount, rings, and sling the whole thing weighed in at 6-pounds flat. Now remember this was a half century before today’s fluted barrel polymer stock “light hunter” guns that still don’t come that close to 6-pounds when outfitted.

11138-SA.A.1

They were chambered in .308 and 30.06 Springfield and some models had a muzzie break to help tame the recoil.

Parasniper brocure NASM-NASM-9A12088

What became of them?

Well just 25 were reportedly made and several were submitted for testing to Aberdeen Proving Ground where the Army found them lacking citing frequent extractor failures and poor accuracy. At least four test models were forwarded to Springfield Armory in 1961 where they remain today in the Museum’s extensive collection.

73371954.SsRBrFAu

Note the peculiar brown color to the stocks. That’s 1950s plastics for you…

SN# 44

SN#158 weighing in at Weighs 5 lbs. 12 oz

SN#415 chambered for T65E3 with a Bushnell 4x scope

SN# 351533 (?)

SPAR's Parasniper collection. Note the "ArmaLite Hollywood" rollmarks on the receiver showing early production as the company later moved to Costa Mesa

SPAR’s Parasniper collection. Note the “ArmaLite Hollywood” rollmarks on the receiver showing early production as the company later moved to Costa Mesa

As for ArmaLite? The biggest mistake the company made was when they sold the rights to the AR-15 to Colt, as their follow-on products: the AR-17 semi-auto shotgun (it had a gold finish with an aluminum barrel– no fooling) and the AR-18/180 never really caught on before the company folded its Costa Mesa location in 1973.

Eagle Arms picked up the rights and trademarks in 1995 and carries on as ArmaLite today, based out of Geneseo, Ill. and has since introduced the AR-20, 30, 50 et.al.