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News You Can Use

November 20, 2012, 11:34 am

Soon to be the subject of a Michael Bay film, I am sure.  Can you point a machine gun at the ground in order to fly.

Tags:
Category: Science

8 Comments

  1. HenryBowman419:

    This is similar to Project Orion in many ways, except that, although under certain conditions a Kalashnikov might lift one, ammo runs out awfully fast, so you don't really fly very well or very far. You simply need lots more energy.

    November 20, 2012, 2:00 pm

  2. obloodyhell:

    If you read the whole article, there's actually a Russian MG (for mounting on planes, etc.) that can manage 40gs of acceleration. :^D

    November 21, 2012, 6:51 am

  3. Mike Soja:

    There was a whole lot of rocket jumping going on in ID Software's Quake games. Point bazooka at the ground, jump-fire, land on usually inaccessible ledge.

    November 21, 2012, 8:41 am

  4. David:

    Awesome. With a side helping of awesome, topped with awesome sauce. I live in a place which effectively bans firearms (DC), but I totally want one of these.

    November 21, 2012, 11:51 am

  5. Matthew Slyfield:

    The American GAU-8 Avenger is similar and gains less net thrust only because it is twice the weight of the Russian Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-6-30

    November 21, 2012, 2:47 pm

  6. Matthew Slyfield:

    The Russian version has a higher rate of fire but a lower muzzle velocity. It is so much lighter 328 lbs to the GAU-8s 620lbs mostly because the Russian gun is gas operated instead of being electrically driven like the modern American Gatling guns. The GAU-8 is the primary armament for the A10 Thunderbolt (Warthog). The recoil force of the GAU-8 is actually greater than the trust capacity of one of the A10s two engines.

    November 21, 2012, 2:56 pm

  7. Bram:

    I was thinking of Orion too - the ultra awesome nuclear bomb propelled spacecraft, not the crappy NASA probe.

    November 21, 2012, 8:22 pm

  8. Rick C:

    If the the Wikipedia entry for the GAU-8 is correct, Randall's wrong on this comic, as he has the engine output of the Warthog off by about a factor of 2: each engine outputs about 9 tons of thrust, not 4. I noticed the forums had people talking about guns like that being able to cause the engine to flame out, but that's addressed in wikipedia as well, saying the problem was fixed on the Warthog.

    And then of course there was the rather over-the-top anti-gun bias.

    November 24, 2012, 12:20 am