Some good info in the discussion so far.
Only, riddle me this - are their chain driven mutli-barrel guns?
If so, then there is a union of the sets Chaingun and Gatling gun. And someone
suggested the 5.56 minigun was like an MG. It must have a
difference - I recall in Predator where Governor Ventura had his minigun
out and was mowing trees.... when he stopped firing, he barrells kept
spinning - I assume by an electric motor (don't know if there was a
chain involved - though it'd be the simplest way to drive such a system
that I can think of). That "electrically driven" part is one of the big
distinctions between a Gatling weapon like the 5.56/7.62/20mm/30mm
multi-barrelled canons and a blowback operated MG. How many of these
systems use chains (which I'd suggest also would involve an oil sump) or some
other drive system for the rotors, I can't imagine.
<From the last few days, why do I feel a desparate need to try to figure out
how this relates to APSWs? *grin*>
Someone also suggested a chain drive gun system has a more predictable rate of
fire. I'd have to wonder if this is true vs. an equivalent electrical drive
system not using a chain? I have to imagine a
multi-barrell weapon is more problem prone than a single barrell, but
chain vs. other form of drive? Chain beats blowback (all sorts of gas pressure
and dirt related stoppages), but is it more reliable than some other
electrical methods used in rotary cannons? I'd think not. And they too would
(I assume) just chuck out dud shells.
Actually, I suspect this is another good argument for going to a gauss
weapon - as long as your electrics are good, no misfires... you don't
get a ferrous needle "blank". You might be capable of a misfeed - this
could I imagine affect any non-energy weapon using some kind of ammo.
But caseless or casted chemical rounds are going to have misfire issues
and dud rounds - something gauss and laser might not. Plasma might or
might not, depending on how we envision the plasma gun system. You might get a
bad "photonic core" (plasma gun round a la 2300 AD), but I don't think a
traveller style PGMP could have that kind of a problem.
G'night all.
Tom B
In a message dated 4/24/00 12:18:03 AM Central Daylight Time,
> kaladorn@home.com writes:
<< If so, then there is a union of the sets Chaingun and Gatling gun. And
someone suggested the 5.56 minigun was like an MG. It must have a
difference - I recall in Predator where Governor Ventura had his
minigun out and was mowing trees.... when he stopped firing, he barrells kept
spinning - I assume by an electric motor (don't know if there was a
chain involved - though it'd be the simplest way to drive such a system
that I can think of). That "electrically driven" part is one of the big
distinctions between a Gatling weapon like the 5.56/7.62/20mm/30mm
multi-barrelled canons and a blowback operated MG. How many of these
systems use chains (which I'd suggest also would involve an oil sump) or some
other drive system for the rotors, I can't imagine. >>
The mini-guns have a battery pack, or are plugged into the vehicle
electrical
system - electric motors.
In a message dated 4/24/00 12:18:03 AM Central Daylight Time,
> kaladorn@home.com writes:
<< Actually, I suspect this is another good argument for going to a gauss
weapon - as long as your electrics are good, no misfires... >>
With a minigun as long as your electronics are good the barrels spin and the
gun fires. The only real advantages at this caliber (given a practical -
in atmosphere muzzle velocity for the gauss weapon) is that you don't have a
pile of casings around your feet.
Just for giggles, we can also throw into the arena the multi-chamber
single barrel electric driven weapons... (sans chain, I believe)
These have multiple (rotating) chambers, but a single barrel. Very odd.
Actually, the only application of these that I know of is in aircraft -
the F5 was armed with two 20mm cannon of this type (as opposed to the much
more typical 20mm gatling used in nearly all other recent US fighter
aircraft).
In a message dated 4/24/00 8:33:47 PM Central Daylight Time,
> adrian.johnson@sympatico.ca writes:
<<
Actually, the only application of these that I know of is in aircraft -
the F5 was armed with two 20mm cannon of this type (as opposed to the much
more typical 20mm gatling used in nearly all other recent US fighter
aircraft).
> [quoted text omitted]
The revolving breech is a feature of Soviet air-air cannon mounts, most
commonly in 23mm
In message <3903DB7D.71DB4AF4@home.com> Thomas Barclay of the Clan
> Barclay writes:
I think you misunderstand what a "chain gun" is.
A chain gun is a specific sort of (patented and trade-marked)
mechanism in which (if I've understood all the techo-gobledigook
correctly) the breech is directly connected to the chain, which drags it
forward and backward as it is driven around its race.
You really couldn't marry this to the gatling gun principle in which the
breeches of each barrel are spinning around... each barrel would need a
seperate chain drive for its breech, which would also spin around... probably
you *could* do it, but it would be a very odd and complex system, which rather
defeats the object. You might just as well drive multiple chainguns off the
same motor and leave out all this spinning business.
One of the reasons that gatling guns can have such high rates of
fire is that by having multiple barrels/breeches the ROF is less
constrained by having to wait for the gas pressure in the barrel to drop
before extracting the case from the breech. Conventional rifles and
machineguns need some sort of locking system to stop the case from extracting
while the pressure is high enough to shred the case as it leaves the breech.
This is equally true for chainguns... if you drove the chain at double speed
the timing might cause not a double ROF but some major stoppage. Since the
required delay is the same limitation as conventional weapons have a 7.62mm
chaingun can easily have the same ROF as any other MG.
To veer this towards sci-fi this problem of gas pressure would
presumably not exist in a "gauss" or railgun, allowing a single-
"barreled" weapon to have a magnificent ROF. OTOH, the physical mass of a gun
barrel would have to be there in the system somehow to act as a heatsink. Love
that thermodynamics.