Ask Ian: Are Man-Portable Chain Guns Coming?

David K. Jernigan

Watched another youtube video from greg's planes and automobiles on fighter armament. It seems US naval fighter F6F, Corsair, F8F, etc. had the ability to charge the guns and safe them from the cockpit. The only army air force fighter that had the ability were early P-38s due to issues with the early 20mm cannon.

Earl

Ian is spot on regarding the reliability of the chain operated bolt of the Hughes Chain gun. I think most jams in the Apache chain gun were caused by the ammo pack/feed system. I was part of the team involved with pre-production developmental and post-production evaluation testing of the AH64 for over 33 years. The 30mm chain gun, as used on the Apache was a very accurate weapon. It's first round hit accuracy was very good. But the subsequent rounds relied heavily on the fire control computer and multitudes of sensors to place the following rounds on target. The bolt, being locked closed until the round exited the barrel created a very high G recoil in the turret that had to be compensated for. The vibrations caused by continuous fire was substantial. Very early on, many parts and subsystems had to be beefed up to hold up to that 30mm. At one time there was an attempt to mount a 30mm Chain gun to the belly of a MD500. That didn't go over well, not only by the vibration causing fatigue fractures in the main frame structure of the fuselage, but caused the nose to pitch down even while firing in forward flight. For the 500, the 7.62 Minigun was a much better option. But neither the Chaingun or the multi-barreled Minigun make for sensible man-portable machine guns. The weight and recoil of the chaingun or the torque of a minigun barrel assembly accelerating to about 660 RPM while you're holding on to it is not something that can easily overcome. Just grab a Ma Deuce or a M-60 and be done with it. 8-)

Loki

Thanks Ian

Forgotten Weapons

I have not done a specific study of the question, but I would expect the accuracy to be no different, and the velocity infinitesimally higher than a gas operated gun - such a small difference as to be irrelevant in any practical sense.

Forgotten Weapons

Yes, fighters often had some sort of pneumatic charging system for wing-mounted guns, as I understand it.

Mrgunsngear

interesting

Hozi

Nice to know we Brits did something right in the modern age for gun's besides sniping

Loki

One thing that wasn't covered and I'm curious about is if Chain Guns have more inherent mechanical accuracy or if you get a higher velocity for the same ammunition. Doesn't change the conclusion as the same weight issue applies.

Martin Morehouse

Nice illumination of an otherwise unseen corner of design!

Albini family

Also curious. How did you clear a dud round in a wing-mounted gun, or did you just have to fly home with one gun not working?

Kenneth Marshall

At some point the same use of energy and heat from supressors might be used to quiet firearms sound

David K. Jernigan

Didn't some WWII fighters have a system for charging the wing mounted guns from the cockpit? Regarding a drone with a chain gun it might not need a separate battery since the drone probably already has one, or depending on what is used for propulsion it could be equipped with a generator to provide the electric power.

Thanks Ian! Glad you enjoyed the question.

Shawn McIver

wow this was great, i never looked into how a chain gun actually functions, i really enjoyed this video

Matt Haught

So much for Ol' Painless