So this past week I was reviewing some documents and stumbled across a partial description of a hybrid gun that is simply enormous. I'm pretty sure it pre-dates VERA too so alas, VERA is not now, nor never has been the largest hybrid gun out there (just the largest on this site).
So what of this other gun?
The gun is in Meppen, Germany. It's a research gun (like VERA) intended for fuze testing (like VERA). It's concept of operation is your standard hybrid gun with burst disk (like VERA). Unlike VERA, however, it uses methane/air instead of propane/air.
The layout is pretty interesting. The gun consists of two rail cars on a short piece of track. One (reasonably short) car holds the combustion chamber (with about 20 methane K bottles stacked on top). The other car holds the barrel. To load the gun you unbolt the breech, separate the cars, and crane in your projectile. The recoil mechanism is to simply let the gun roll backwards a few feet on the railroad track.
Conceptually, it's a very simple gun. The scale is enormous. Actually, it's not THAT much bigger than VERA if you just look at length of barrel and such. But it's obviously made of much heavier stock. I don't know what the mix capabilities of the gun are but they're obviously pretty high. How high? I just don't know.... But it shoots BLU-109s to trans-sonic velocities.
Still looking for more information.
On another note: I also got to tour an AC-130 last week. That was pretty cool too.
A gun that makes VERA look pathetic and small....
- Juggernaut12121
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Dear lord, I can't wait to see pictures of such a beast.D_Hall wrote:But it shoots BLU-109s to trans-sonic velocities.
Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve
- Technician1002
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Vera should be fuel agnoistic. There is no reason it could not run methane, propane, natural gas, etc. I would not want to be around if you tried welding gas or Hydrogen/Oxygen mixes.
- D_Hall
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VERA could run other gases, but there's no advantage. The performance differences between propane and others are negligable at 3X. It should be noted, however, that methane could go to much higher mixes than propane if you had a gun constructed to take it (I doubt that either gun in question are, however... Why methane? No idea.).
edit: I suppose running methane would make for easier pressure based fueling than propane, but it would likely cost more as you don't buy tanks of methane at Home Depot.
edit: I suppose running methane would make for easier pressure based fueling than propane, but it would likely cost more as you don't buy tanks of methane at Home Depot.
- jackssmirkingrevenge
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Damn!
Are you saying that Schwerer Gustav is no longer the largest bore railway gun ever built?
Are you saying that Schwerer Gustav is no longer the largest bore railway gun ever built?
hectmarr wrote:You have to make many weapons, because this field is long and short life