Interested in the multi-barreled "Leputy" machine gun, the "Bartley" machine gun and the "craton" machine gun. Pen~Fun~Pavilion www.biquge.info The inventor of these machine guns was not a gunsmith or mechanic, but Richard Jordan Gatlin, MD.

After the successful design of the Gatling gun, he wrote letters to the president, politicians, and military strategists of the United States, and appealed to the world for sponsorship, and finally compensated for the high cost of development. Gatling succeeded in impressing General F. Butler by convincing him to purchase all of the "Gatling Rapid Fire Weapons".

Folded 20th century

Modern Gatling gun

Modern Gatling gun

In modern times, some people have applied its principle to machine guns in order to achieve a high rate of fire; The most famous example is the 20mm M61 Vulcan cannon used by the US Air Force.

Gatling machine guns and cannons were nothing more than the power source for the rotation of the barrel at that time, from manual to electric or relying on recoil to drive the barrel rotation. The former became an external energy source, and the latter was an internal energy source, and the Gatling cannon used by the United States preferred to use external energy, while the Soviet Union preferred to use internal energy.

External energy sources usually include manpower, electric, pneumatic, hydraulic, etc. The Vulcan cannon pod can even be powered by an air turbine driven by oncoming airflow. The electric method can directly use the on-board power supply, which is simple and easy, but the start-up acceleration is slow, and the on-board electronics have an impact on the on-board electronic equipment when working. The pneumatic way accelerates quickly, but is less reliable. The hydraulic motor requires the hydraulic system on the machine to add a pipeline to output hydraulic drive, but the work starts quickly and has low requirements for on-board power supply. In general, the hydraulic motor is more suitable for the needs of the Gatling gun with a high rate of fire. The "external energy" can easily adjust the rate of fire, and theoretically the rate of fire can be freely changed between 0 and the maximum speed.

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Modern Gatling gun

Modern Gatling gun

The Gatling automatic principle, or revolver rifle rifle firing principle, uses a set of transmission mechanisms to rotate several barrels around a common axis to complete continuous firing. The Gatling gun was mechanical, and initially the barrel rotation required manual rotation of the shaker, which was later modified to be done by an electric motor. Its advantages are a high rate of fire, great power, and the barrel can accelerate cooling, the main disadvantages are large volume, mass and high energy consumption.

Gatling guns are mainly used in aviation, because fighters fly fast, each shot usually takes less than 1 second, in order to effectively hit and destroy the target, it is necessary to fire a sufficient amount of ammunition in a very short time to the maximum possible, and the speed compensates for the accuracy.

In turn, the equipment for the infantry is very inappropriate.

First of all, the extremely limited carrying capacity of the infantry will further amplify the shortcomings of the Gatling gun's bulkiness;

Secondly, the infantry simply does not need such a high rate of fire (who will wait in line for you to finish more than 1,000 rounds?), and a high rate of fire does not necessarily make it powerful. The caliber of the M134 is only 7.62mm, which is more difficult to deal with targets such as the Humvee, and if you change to the 12.7mm M2HB Browning, a burst of fire is basically disabled. And against individual targets, accurate and rapid point shooting is more effective;

Finally, Gatling's staggering ammunition consumption is also something that infantry cannot afford, and Gatling's greatest advantage becomes a disadvantage here. Various models

The difference between the rotating tube machine gun (i.e. the rapid-fire machine gun) and the rotating machine gun is that the chamber does not move and the barrel rotates continuously, and the working characteristics of this gun are that each launch tube has its own locking mechanism, which respectively completes the actions of feeding, locking, firing and throwing shells in turn, and is generally driven by a motor. The rotary-tube machine gun has a higher rate of fire and can be adjusted by changing the power of the motor; The high-speed rotation of the barrel can accelerate cooling, and because the gun is driven by external energy, it has high reliability and will not affect continuous shooting due to non-firing.

Modern Gatling guns mainly appeared in the 40~50s of the 20th century, but they are no longer ancient

Modern Gatling gun

Modern Gatling gun

The hand-cranked launch was changed to an electric motor or hydraulic motor drive, and the maximum rate of fire reached 6000~10000 rounds per minute.

This series was originally the M61 20*102mm "Vulcan" machine gun (1959), F-4, F-14, F15, F-16, F/A-18, F-22 and other famous fighters all use the "Vulcan" gun, and the Phalanx close defense system also uses this gun. Hydraulically driven, electric launch, with a chainless feeding system, with a maximum rate of fire of 6,000 rounds per minute.

M4A61 on the F-1

M4A61 on the F-1

M4A61 on the F-1

M4A61 on the F-1

M18A61 just dismantled from the F-2

M18A61 just dismantled from the F-2

The M61 has a GAU-4 type (army number M130) with a gas-guided principle, and due to the addition of a gas conduction mechanism, the weight of the gun body is about 4.5kg heavier than that of the M61 type, but it does not require a drive motor, and the overall weight is about 20kg lighter.

M134 Minigun (Minegon) 7.62*51mm 6-barreled machine gun (1963, Air Force No. GAU-2, Navy No. Mk25Mod0). Electrically driven, the rate of fire is from 6000 rounds per minute (high speed) to 2000 rounds (low speed). It is mainly installed in various helicopter hatches. Mainly because during the Vietnam War, the U.S. military found that helicopters were vulnerable to attacks by light weapons such as RPG rocket launchers, and the M134 was used to catch flies. The M134 held by the bandits in the movie has a rate of fire of no more than 1,800 rounds per minute, and sometimes only 250 rounds per minute, in order to reduce recoil. Due to the low number of orders for the M134, in 1975, General Dynamics stopped producing the M134 and eliminated the M134 from the catalog. In the 1990s, the rise of special operations brought the M134 back into focus. At present, the production of the M134 is taken over by the American company Dillon Aero (DillonAero), and the company has also made improvements to the ammunition supply devices such as the plucking wheel and the ammunition belt, which further improves its reliability, especially when the whole gun life is greatly improved without special maintenance. Nowadays, the M134 has been widely adopted again, and the M134 can often be seen on many helicopters, small boats, and light combat vehicles of the US military, and it has also been exported to more than a dozen countries. The M134 produced by Dillon added a fire control system and a cylindrical flame suppressor, but the weight was increased and it could not be hand-held. The M197 20*102mm cannon (1967), a lightweight version of the M61 type, has only 3 barrels and has a rate of fire

Modern Gatling gun

Modern Gatling gun

750~1000 rounds/min. It is mainly equipped with AH-1 Cobra helicopters and other models.