2006-02-09 16:32:07.916201+00 by Dan Lyke 3 comments
HGR1219 forwarded me this little piece about designing a new H-bomb at Lawrence Livermore labs, which I figured I'd tie together with the reports of the new Gatling guns that they're putting in at the lab. I know I'd feel safer if I lived across the street...
[ related topics: Interactive Drama Invention and Design Guns HGR1219 ]
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#Comment Re: made: 2006-02-10 01:45:18.864005+00 by: meuon
The M134 is not "new", except to them. - Somewhere is an image with a General Electric M134 on the nose of a 'chopper where someone scrawled "GE - We bring good things to life."
I saw one fire at Carswell AFB once as a demo. Awe. Pure Awe.
#Comment Re: made: 2006-02-10 01:50:35.121501+00 by: Dan Lyke
Oh, is this the same little beastie they put in the A-10 Warthog? The one where the exhaust gasses on the prototypes would cause flameouts, and the kickback was equivalent to one of the engines?
Fun. Want. But probably not practical in my neighborhood...
#Comment Re: made: 2006-02-10 09:17:10.759224+00 by: meuon [edit history]
Yep, it's what can cause an A-10 to stop in mid-air. I also re-found this gem: http://world.guns.ru/machine/minigun-e.htm
In the year 1987 the movie "Predator" (starring A. Schwarznegger) hit the screens. One of the most impressive scenes was the one where the US Commandos, led by "Dutch" (Schwarznegger), attempted to fight back the alien Predator. One of Commandos was armed with the distinctive weapon, a 6-barreled rotary Minigun, fed from backpack ammo box. This gave the impression that the Miniguns can be used for infantry support. It must be noted, that in this movie a special, blank firing version of the Minigun was sued. The electric motor was powered via cable, hidden in the actor's pants, and the actor had to carry bulletproof vest and protective mask to avoid injuries from the fast and violently ejecting empty cases. Had this gun being fired using real ammunition, the actor would ended lying on his back, being forced off the legs by the violent recoil. The "backpack" ammo capacity, also, could be worth only several seconds of fire. lets calculate: 2 000 rounds of 5.56mm ammo will weight about 25 kg (55 lbs); 2 000 rounds of 7.62mm will weight about 2 times more, making such load almost impossible to carry on foots. yet this load of ammo will worth only 20 or so seconds of fire. Add some powerful batteries to power electrical drive of about 4KWt (4+ horse-power), and the bulk of the gun itself, and you'll see that even the strongest man won't be able to carry this load,