The company focused on producing small arms concepts and designs to be sold or licensed to other manufacturers. With its limited capital and tiny machine shop, ArmaLite was never intended to be an arms manufacturer. On October 1, 1954, the company was incorporated as the ArmaLite Corporation, becoming a subdivision of Fairchild. 308/7.62x51 caliber Armalite type riflesĪrmaLite began as a small engineering concern founded by George Sullivan, the patent counsel for Lockheed Corporation, and funded by Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation. Colt continued to use the AR-15 trademark for its line of semi-automatic-only rifles, which it marketed to civilian and law-enforcement customers as the Colt AR-15. After modifications (most notably, the charging handle was re-located from under the carrying handle like AR-10 to the rear of the receiver), the new redesigned rifle was subsequently adopted by the U.S. In 1959, ArmaLite sold its rights to the AR-10 and AR-15 to Colt's Manufacturing Company due to financial difficulties, and limitations in terms of manpower and production capacity. 223 Remington cartridge, and given the designation ArmaLite AR-15. In 1957, the basic AR-10 design was rescaled and substantially modified by ArmaLite to accommodate the. However, the ArmaLite AR-10 would become the progenitor for a wide range of firearms. Over its production life, the original AR-10 was built in relatively small numbers, with fewer than 10,000 rifles assembled. When first introduced in 1956, the AR-10 used an innovative straight-line barrel/stock design with phenolic composite and forged alloy parts resulting in a small arm significantly easier to control in automatic fire and over 1 lb (0.45 kg) lighter than other infantry rifles of the day.
The ArmaLite AR-10 is a 7.62×51mm NATO battle rifle developed by Eugene Stoner in the late 1950s and manufactured by ArmaLite, then a division of the Fairchild Aircraft Corporation. 3.6× telescopic sight)Īdjustable aperture rear sight, fixed post front sight Gas-operated, rotating bolt (internal piston, not direct impingement)ħ00 rounds/min (fully automatic), variable (semi-automatic)Ħ00 m (660 yd) (700 m (770 yd) with A.I.