-R-a-I-l-G-u-N-s-?-

This topic is all about railguns.
-What are they?
-How could I make sprites of them from the Quake 2 model. I tried taking a screenshot, but it didn't seem to work... cuz the picture was very messed up.
-How could I make one myself? (I remember someone mentioning a way to make a simple one that demonstrates how it works with like a marble and something.)

Lazer said:

This topic is all about railguns.
-What are they?

A series of electromagnets designed and aligned to propel a slug into hypersonic velocity. Like a maglev train, except the "train" is much smaller and the "track" runs out real quick.

-How could I make sprites of them from the Quake 2 model. I tried taking a screenshot, but it didn't seem to work... cuz the picture was very messed up.

Prolly easier to rip the railgun sprite from Shadow Warrior. Google for it.

-How could I make one myself? (I remember someone mentioning a way to make a simple one that demonstrates how it works with like a marble and something.)

Boom.

Lazer said:

-How could I make sprites of them from the Quake 2 model. I tried taking a screenshot, but it didn't seem to work... cuz the picture was very messed up.

http://www.bluesnews.com/screenshots/q2/quake2-15.jpg

Google search. Took me six seconds, you Big Lazy Man.

Quoted from Security Arms

A railgun uses the flow of electricity to accelerate a projectile to incredibly high velocities. It is distinct from other guns (or more correctly, cannons) by the fact that no chemical combustion is necessary. In fact, no gasses are used to accelerate the projectile. All the acceleration is done by the flow of electricity.

Railguns are a relatively new technology and are much less efficient than other chemical means. Railguns that operate with a total efficiency of over two percent are considered highly efficient. The advantage of railguns is that they can accelerate a projectile much faster than is possible using any other means. To date, railguns can easily fire a projectile at over velocities of 10 kilometers per second. Velocities of approximately 150 kilometers per second are considered possible. By comparison, the maximum velocity that a light gas gun has fired a projectile is less than eight kilometers per second.

HOW THEY WORK
A railgun is essentially a linear DC motor. Instead of the current spinning an armature, the current pushes a projectile (see Figure below). A railgun consists of two parallel field-producing metal plates, the distance between them being the diameter of the projectile. A high-current DC source of electricity is discharged through the projectile via the two plates. This creates a force known as the Lorentz force that is perpendicular to the flow of the current. This propels the projectile in the opposite direction that the current came from.

Lazer said:

-How could I make sprites of them from the Quake 2 model. I tried taking a screenshot, but it didn't seem to work... cuz the picture was very messed up.

Well, though it won't contain the graphics from the Quake 2 version (but it DOES contain the sound), you could always use the railgun.bex patch that comes with ZDOOM 1.22 (and above, I think).

hey, I would be interested to know if there are some guys around in the US wearing a Rail Gun.....should be possible since guns are free there

I've got railgun.bex, I'm sure many of you also have it.

KING ELVIS said:

hey, I would be interested to know if there are some guys around in the US wearing a Rail Gun.....should be possible since guns are free there

I don't know anyone stupid enough to try to build the real thing, given that the standard ammunition is a cylindrical core of depleted uranium. That and the fact that a railgun basically turns that core into a molten blob capable of penetrating into and through the armor of an M1A2 Abrams.

On top of all that, it requires a ridiculous amount of energy, and I don't know a whole lot of people willing to spend that kind of money just to shoot...stuff...at people...never mind.

DC

KING ELVIS said:

hey, I would be interested to know if there are some guys around in the US wearing a Rail Gun.....should be possible since guns are free there

It'd be kinda hard, considering the smallest railguns available are hard-mounted on battleships and are used to shoot down missiles. Y'know, seeing how the railgun assembly is about the size and mass of my Mazda...

What makes you think guns are free here? You're free to own and carry them, but even the shittiest little revolver costs $25 empty, and ammo runs about 2USD/bullet.

Well thank you all, I've learned a lot about railguns now. Also, I do have the railgun.bex, it just that I didn't have new graphics for a railgun, and I wanted to use the ones from quake 2.

KING ELVIS said:

hey, I would be interested to know if there are some guys around in the US wearing a Rail Gun.....should be possible since guns are free there

Simple proof that it is not only the USA that engages in modern propaganda.

heh, i liked the railgun in skulltag

Ahhh real railgun

There is a quake 2 weapons mod in 3darchives combo section, that has railgun sprites, but it was used as a rocket launcher, if i remember correctly.

What the hell is that, fods?

DC

A golf putter, sure must be funny when Tiger Woods turns to his caddie and says "Pass me the railgun for this one!" :)

Guys, some of you are confusing railguns with the US NAVY Phalanx weapon system which is used on ships today. See http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/weapons/wep-phal.html

This is the sucker that uses the depleted uranium slugs.

Rainguns are not practical technology for missile defense. They are not employed anywhere in military use. They do not fire uranium projectiles. They do not melt their projectiles.

That will make Tiger Woods feel safer :)

You fire something that fast and see if is doesn't get more than a little hot.

DC

Yeah, that's surely correct, all I meant was that the projectile is not melted by the gun itself, as a molten spray ceases to be a projectile. A "hypervelocity" projectile in Earth's atmosphere probably won't last long before melting from friction.

Rainguns are not practical technology for missile defense

I wouldn't think rain would be all that good taking down a missile.

bigbadgangsta said:

I wouldn't think rain would be all that good taking down a missile.

You'd be surprised, it was raining incredibly hard here the last few days. If it's pouring hard enough to damage a parked car, it's hard enough to knock a missile out of the sky.

[EDIT] I got my avatar back! yay!

IMJack said:

You'd be surprised, it was raining incredibly hard here the last few days.

Ah, so THAT'S where the storm came from! Man, it hit SA real hard last night.

Heh, if they ever figure out a way around the MASSIVE recoil railguns may actually become practical someday. Lasers will probably prevent that though??? I read somewhere when the military was first testing a railgun they mounted it to the deck of a battleship and when they pulled the trigger:

- The first two ripped off and flew backwards into the ocean

- the next one severely warped the section of deck the gun was mounted to.

They sure look cool though.

- The first two ripped off and flew backwards into the ocean

- the next one severely warped the section of deck the gun was mounted to

ROFLMAO! Hahaha, that is funny, I don't know why though.

Science Lesson:

The Gauss "device" shown in the link from post 2 isn't specificially feasible, but does demonstrate the power of magnets.

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My idea is this:

You assemble several O rings made of steel, wrapped in copper wire. Each O ring that you progress down the barrel of the gun you apply 4 times the amount of electricity to (2nd one =4x the first, 3rd one = 16x the first, 4th one = 64x the first, etc). As soon as the bullet passes one of the coils, turn it off, that way the coil it just passed doesnt pull the bullet backwards (a common attack to this idea is that the coil will accelerate the bullet backwards with as much force as it pushed it forwards, stopping it in it's tracks).

This way the acceleration of the "bullet" is constantly increasing (not simply the velocity mind you - the acceleration too, it accelerates much faster than seconds^2). It may also be a good idea to put an "initaitor" behind the bullet, like a small gunpowder/percussion charge just to get the bullet going so the magnetic coils dont have to overcome friction with the projectile's barrel.

Now pay special attention when I say that the velocity on this gun is limited. It doesnt shoot close to the speed of light, and probably doesnt even shoot fast enough to launch the bullet into outer space either. It does however shoot at speeds much faster than a rifle bullet (maybe as much as 5000 meters per second - or 11000 miles per hour, that's 5x as fast as the fastest 5.56mm M16 bullet).

For the "barrel", you could use a bulletproof plastic tube which is inserted down the O ring structure, this way the bullet doesnt have to levitate to be in the very center of each O ring... though most military engineers would probably want to use a series of spiralling bars (or "rails", from which the word "railgun" is coined) in order to induce a spin on the bullet (rifling).

The bullet will have to be magnet-sensitive, ie, effected by magnetic fields. This pretty much rules out uranium slugs - and more or less favors steel/iron. If the gun is going to use spiralling rails it'd be a good idea to encase the bullet in some kind of deformable material like plastic or lead (so the bullet is "jacketed").

Also - the best shape for the bullet would be a small diameter rod with a sharpened point, sort of like a conventional rifle bullet but longer and about as wide as a BB (4.5x18mm projectile in other words).

The small diameter makes the bullet able to pierce large volumes of material - the front cross section is small so there isn't as much material that the bullet will have to push against. Also, since the bullet is long, it plows through things like a train. Take note that you dont want to get hit by it either, because even though it's not a hollowpoint bullet, the sheer velocity of the projectile will tear you in half.

Basicially we're looking at a gun that shoots big needles that can pierce as much or more armor than a .50calibre machinegun.

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What possible use in the world would a railgun have anyway?

1) Makes all forms of personnel armor obsolete before they're even invented (power armor, advanced combat armor, etc).

2) Makes one hell of a sniper rifle (perhaps double the range of conventional sniper rifles).

3) Makes it easier to take out vehicles.

4) The gun can cut through moderate deflaide (however it's spelled), underbrush, and concrete walls easily, making it harder than ever to "hide" from it (so it severly decreases the defensive capabilities of ground troops, regardless of defensive fortifications).

5) Kills troops instantly (except for hits on the lower legs or forearms - then it simply rips the appendage off).

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What a railgun is not good for:

1) Shooting down missiles. we dont have good enough sensor equipment developed to track a missile to such a precise extent needed for a railgun to hit it.

2) Machineguns. railguns aren't exactly a high refire weapon. And the layout of their O ring complexes complicates matters when attempting to design minigun-style rotary railguns (multiple barrels so you can fire faster without melting it).

3) Taking out armored vehicles. Sure, the projectile can pierce armor, but it just doesnt have as much "umpf" as a heavy tank weapon or explosive (which have energy ratings in the megajoule range). It does allow an easier way for a sniper to take out the ammunition compartment of a tank though (so it could technicially be accomplished).

4) Standard Infantry Rifle. A railgun would cost so much to make, and be so hard to carry ammunition for (the battery pack!), that at the smallest it would only be operable by a 2 or 3 man sniper outfit, or vehicle mounted.

You've only seen another internet hoax, if you read somewhere that any railgun was tested on a ship, and that any railgun "came loose" when being tested. No railgun weapon system has been developed, no weapon system is tested on a ship without extensive laboratory development first, and no such gross mechanical engineering error would be made by professional engineers such as not understanding the magnitude of recoil, exactly how the supporting structure bears the loads, what the structural deflections and "ringing" are, yadda yadda.

Rellik said:

Heh, if they ever figure out a way around the MASSIVE recoil railguns may actually become practical someday. Lasers will probably prevent that though??? I read somewhere when the military was first testing a railgun they mounted it to the deck of a battleship and when they pulled the trigger:

- The first two ripped off and flew backwards into the ocean

- the next one severely warped the section of deck the gun was mounted to.

They sure look cool though.

Recoil is calculated using the following equation:
m1v1=m2m2.

Say that the railgun bullet weigh a hefty 0.1kg (2/9 Lbs). And the Railgun including its mounting 450kg (1000 Lbs).

the figure 11,000 m/s was mentioned somewhere in this thread =>

v2 = (0.1*11000)/450m/s = 2.444 m/s = 5.5 mph.

which is hardly enough to throw anything in the ocean or warp any gunship decks... The recoil is probably even smaller as I exaggerated the data somewhat.

Davis, William H. "Rail Circuit Augmentation." Picatinny Arsenal, NJ: Army Armament Research Development and Engineering Center, Fire Support Armament Center, May 1991. 19p.
Abstract: A concept for an augmented railgun barrel and integrated projectile/armature system is presented. The system makes use of the rail geometry to expose the augmenting rails to the bore, and incorporates dual tandem armatures in the launch package. Benefits include reduced current and power required to launch a given mass and a modest reduction in sabot mass due to creation of multiple tension and compression regions resulting from the use of dual armatures. Radial and axial plasma confinement techniques may be required to take advantage to systems benefits. Application to an antiarmor mission is proposed.
REPORT NUMBER: ARFSD-TR-91-008
ACCESSION NUMBER: AD-A234 944

In any case wouldn't lasers be much better than railguns? I mean, there are already snipers that can kill you from as far as a thousand yards with a somewhat conventional rifle. Wouldn't lasers be better as you don't have to adjust for windage / distance / target motion? Or is there some problem with the beam losing intensity in the atmosphere?