So is anyone here interested in this sort of thing? I've wanted to build a railgun just for fun, but I know it would either be too expensive to build/maintain a decent one or not enough fun to build one that does not need to be maintained.
I've them fired before, I wasnt allowed to shoot them though....bastards. It is loud as fuck so we had to put plugs in, or ear muffs, like heavy duty ones.
ive always loved the entire concept. and itd be so practical especially in like the middle east. all the dudes hiding in buildings all we have to do is chill and pop them off through walls. crazy
That and with the nuclear reactors on naval ships we could easily eliminate the weight of gunpowder needed to fire projectiles. Making room for more projectiles and thus increasing the amount of stuff you can blow up. One funny thing I thought of was a hybrid car with a railgun mounted on it. It'd basically be as powerful as a tank, but with zero armor. But it would be completely legal in the United States because there are no laws against rail/gauss guns.
Well, the railguns we have now don't fire thousands of rounds per second (I could be wrong, but I don't think we can charge them that fast). The payload I was thinking of would be about 1kg and ideal exit velocity of about 250m/s. Granted this would move the car back quite a bit but it'd be fine as long as you don't fire to the side.
Have you not seen some of the chainguns and stuff they have on some helipcoters? Those things dish out some power.
Those are chain guns though, powered by gunpowder. Gauss guns and railguns get their propulsion from electricity, and most railguns right now will not fire more than 20 shots before the rails need replacing due to friction.
Well, if you want sheer destructive power there's an Austrailian gun out there that fires literally one million rounds per minute. I personally just think that railgun technology is cool because it's able to deliver a large amount of force very cheaply.
