29-06-2005, 20:23
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חבר מתאריך: 26.05.05
הודעות: 14
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Metal Storm Technology: Intellectual challenge
I'm sure many of the members of the forum know of the Metal Storm project. If not, here's the site: http://www.metalstorm.com/04_the_technology.html. I've been puzzled by how the process works. In theory, stacking bullets one after another in a barrel so they fire by an electronic charge would seem nonsensical. I would think that the first and last bullet fired would have a completely different trajectory.
Does anyone have any idea how the metal storm system works?
If not, I thinhk its an intellectual challenge to try and figure it out. Some of the assumptions I've made (and my conclusions) are as follows:
1. The barrel is most likely smooth bore (at the high rate of fire - several tens of thousand a minute, rifling would probably not be practical.
2. The propellant is probbaly not soild fuel. In granulate form, which we are familiar with from standard bullets, there would not be enough room to stack many bullets. In solid form the propellant would not burn quickly enough.
I _suspect_ that the principle is that of an inkjet printer, in which small micro droplets of propellant are m,ixed with air or another gas to make a miniature fuel-air explosion. This would also answer many of the other questions: micro-dot technology is fully mature, computer controlled, and it means you can compensate for the charge needs of the first bullet (more power) and the last (longer barrel, less propellant). It also allows things like variable loads (in different barrels, of course).
Can anyone, hopefully an enghineer or armourer, come up with a better explanation?
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