Interestingly, in the U.S. Civil War I believe that some guns were referred to as “rifled cannons” (such as the Parrott) versus guns like the Napoleon (which I think was a “smooth bored cannon.”
I think that anything higher than a small arm was effectively a form of artillery, which could be cannon (effectively direct fire), howitzers, or mortars (indirect fire).
Look at the picture in this link. The text says:
"The Davy Crockett consisted of an XM-388 projectile launched from either a 120-millimeter (XM-28) or 155-millimeter (XM-29) recoilless rifle (the 120 millimeter version is shown above). "
Why is that thing called a “recoiless rifle”. There isn’t even a barrel involved.
the barrel is the shiny thing in the top picture. It’s an open-ended tube, all the blast goes out through the vent at the back. These tubes were usually rifled.
Well, then that big thing at the front has fins. Those fins look like they would resist spinning. Do I guess it doesn’t spin, and a center rod holding it in the barrel does spin?
Not that I’d argue with some dude wielding one of those. He wants to call it a rifle? Fine by me!
Dammit I knew that from an old Airfix model my Dad and I made years ago when I was a kid. Its still hanging in my room in Polish Air Cavalry livery, complete with the three mentioned guns at the nose of the aircraft.
And dammit I knew that as well :smack: From the UK History channel, another few viewings and I’ll know what happened at Leyte Gulf in WWII too.
See kids, this is what happens when you don’t apply your accumulated knowledge :rolleyes:
Yaknow, this is the first time I’ve heard the MiG-15 refered to as “Heavily armored”. My understanding of the plane was that it was a lightly armored, heavily armed, very agile interceptor. But yeah, the .50 cal did lack the punch of the 20’s later used.
Where do the fins go? Does the barrel have slots, or do they flip out as the round leaves the barrel or are they at the back inside the diameter of the round like a mortar?
The round is mounted on a sabot that closely fits and seals the bore against loss of pressure. The diameter of the sabot is slightly larger than that of the projectile When the round and the sabot exit the muzzle, the sabot drops away since it has high aerodynamic drag and the projectile proceeds on its own with the fins imparting spin.
Of the 3,273 original M1s, a total of 998 are being upgraded to A2 specifications, in lieu of new production. (The most recent program was scheduled to end last year, but I don’t know what the status of it is.)
Excluding Abrams produced for foreign countries, 5,017 M1A1s were produced for the US Army and USMC. Just 77 tanks were built as M1A2s from the ground up, but as mentioned above nearly a thousand have been converted from M1s.
Incidently, the new SEP (system enhancement package) was added to 240 M1A2s, and I believe it will eventually be rolled out to all A2s. Next on the horizon for the Abrams is said to be a new engine, as the current one has been out of production since 1992.
20mm is the point where you can practically start loading rounds with explosives.
Some rotary guns are chain guns, but the terms are not synonymous. There are chain guns that have one barrel, such as on the Bradley and Apache. And as far as the term “gatling gun” - it’s come to refer to any multibarreled automatic weapon, even if the original didn’t have that exact functionality.
Recoilless rifles are essentially tubes that launch rockets. This is to distinguish them from explosive-launched projectiles.
It seems you are right and my aging memory had confused “toughness” (construction integrity such as that demonstrated by the B-17) with armor:Soviet pilots regarded the MiG-15 as much sturdier than the F-86, and it seems evident that the MiG-15 featured the famous “tractor toughness” of the best Soviet gear. Pilots warmly called it the “samolyot-soldaht (soldier aircraft)”. Many pilots insisted insist that MiG-15s that were claimed as “kills” often made it back home and lived to fight on.
Fair enough but can you give me a definition for chain gun?
Heh, on the subject of B-17s and armor, I read in The Mighty Eighth (by Gerald Astor, IIRC) that the only armor plating on the B-17Gs was located under the seats of the flight crew “…because they knew what they wanted to protect.”
And on the subject of cannon rounds vs. bullets, I seem to recall reading somewhere that they had .50 calibre machine gun rounds with explosive tips. I suppose they probably weren’t very practical to produce or use (don’t know how much use the amoutn of explosive you could fit in something that small would do vs. a solid slug)
Also, don’t modern 20mm cannon rounds used on fighter planes tend to be solid slugs? A friend told me they rely on their insanely high refire rate to basically shred a target to pieces rather than try to blow them up.
Another possible difference is the propellant charge. The propellant in some weapons is separate from the projectile. This way the weapon can fire multiple distances without changing the elevation. All of the old cannon, and firearms had this capability, where a gunner could put more or less powder into the cannon. Couldn’t this be a consideration?
Actually, they first of all are rifled, unlike a smoothbored bazooka, and do have the alternative of providing the propulsion through a cartridge charge OR being the aiming tube for a proper rocket. Cite.
In the case of the Davy Crockett, what you have is the 105mm RR being used as launching device for a really, really big-arsed RPG. A nuclear RPG.
As for 20mm cannon rounds being standard FMJ… that’s not true either. US fighters usually fire either Armor Piercing/Incendiary or High Explosive/Incendiary rounds. Despite the ridiculous rate of fire, hitting other airplanes is still pretty tricky- they need all the help they can get, including HE rounds.
Large guns certainly use this sort of propellant, but a 20mm cannon or 30mm cannon has never been loaded that way. They are fed by pre-loaded, cased amo belts, just like machine guns–hence the question of the OP. (Even the 75mm cannons they put on a few WWII aircraft came with cased propellants so that they could be fired automatically without messing around with measuring the charge.)