my favorite railgun is the one in Quake 3. In fact, I hacked my copy of the game so that the trail would last for like a minute, making the battles all psychedelic. Sigh. Those were the days.
The Rail Gun
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 On 04/27/2013 at 05:36 PM by smartcelt See More From This User » |
One of my all time favorite video game weapons is the rail gun. Just one of the most badass and cool looking guns ever created. But could we ever get to fire one in the real world? I've always doubted it,but my son said he heard a news report that said the Navy may put one into use a lot sooner than expected. So I did a little digging to find out more about the weapon itself.
A railgun consists of a pair of parallel conducting rails,along which a sliding armature is sped along by electromagnetic fields of current. The current flows down one rail,into the armature,and then down the other rail. The projectile picks up speed as it slides down the rails.
Of course,to many of you Metal Gear Rex came to mind at the first mention of a rail gun. Not surprising,as the first time I saw one was in that very game[MGS2] and at first I thought it was just pure sci-fi. The mass,size,and high cost of power supplies have made the railgun just experimental up until the past few years.
The very first railgun was built during WWII [1944 to be exact]by Joachim Hansler of Germany. He worked for the Ordnance Office and he proposed that it could be used in an anti-aircraft battery. But the power demands were too great and it was never built. Much like the jet aircraft the Luftwaffe had built a prototype for,the Nazis had the know how and ability to produce the railgun. They just lacked the resources and money to make it feasible. The gun would have required a staggering amout of power to fire. And it probably would have melted after a few shots!
Railguns produce tons of heat due to the current flowing through the rails and friction caused by projectiles as they leave the weapon.
The impact they make is incredible,as the projectile is moving much faster than your standard ordnance might be fired at. The range they can reach is greatly increased as well.
In 2002 the Navy tested a railgun. During the test a world record was set by conducting a 33 megajoule shot from a railgun built by BAE Systems
A more recent test took place in February 2012 using a more compact model developed by General Atomics. Until they solve the problems with heat and power supplies I don't think any of us will be packing a railgun anytime soon. But maybe that's not such a bad thing. Heaven help us if some nut job was running the streets with a railgun! Still would be fun to shoot it though. I will leave you with a brief video of the gun in action. It packs a wallop to say the least.
What I'm listening to today...........
Well, I guess people are just used to other people building cool shit with Legos now, but I'm still impressed.
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