At one time, so many images of various fantastic machines were printed on the covers of the American magazine "Modern Mekenix", and what machines, that when you look at them, an idea involuntarily creeps in, and … were those who published this magazine "at home"? In addition, they did not spare the red paint, so that these covers (and the cars are also red!) Were visible in the kiosks from afar. But rest assured, they did everything right both with regard to the red paint (after all, it is said that red "fools love!"), And with respect to the incredible pictures. Even if not much of this has been realized, but … these publications, of course, gave impetus to imagination and imagination to very many.
And now I would like to act as a "generator" of the same ideas. They are all based on something. The parts that make up them (like puzzles) work separately. Will they work just as well when put together? Naturally, I don’t know this, I’m not that kind of specialist. But … this is not known and many, so to speak, recognized experts, to whom all this was shown. Their answers were: “Yes, you have to look!”, “Yes, how will it look in metal ?!”, but no one has money either to “look” or “in metal”. Well, it happens. Then let VO readers take a look at all of this and draw their own conclusions.
Gun, printed in 3D printing technology from plastic. A sophisticated sight on the barrel block, of course, solely for the sake of beauty!
So, let's start with … a pistol printed in 3D technology from plastic. In the USA, this has already been made and fired (which, by the way, VO has already written about), and the Colt pistol of 11, 43-mm caliber has already been "printed" in 3D from metal. Yes, it turned out to be expensive - something about $ 2,000 apiece and it took manual "finishing up". But this is just the beginning. In the last article about the "paper pistol", it was said that the pistol has become a status weapon, that even American cops, according to statistics, remove it from the holster only once every seven years, and use it once every 17 …
But the industry also does not stand still. Computers are increasingly entering our lives, so weapons should also in the future be … a shooting computer!
So, we print the entire pistol in 3D from high-strength plastic, well, let's say the one that goes to the Glock-7 or its equivalent. It is based on a block of barrels, in which, depending on the caliber, there can be 9, 13, and 25 channels. Each channel can contain from one to five cartridges inserted into it one after the other. Since the pistol does not have a bolt, these channels (barrels), with the same dimensions as conventional pistols, are longer, which is always good, isn't it? Well, 3D printing will help to print them in such a way that they all look at one point at a distance of 50 m, so that the accuracy of shooting from it will be quite high.
The charges are Teflon cartridges, and in addition to the feathered bullet (the barrels are not rifled, but smooth, so the plumage for the bullet is necessary!), There is a powder charge (in the bullet space), a microchip activated by microwave radiation, and an ignition coil. And that's it! No mechanical connection to anything, no moving parts.
The handle contains a control panel for the ammunition, which in its essence is nothing more than an ordinary mobile phone. The drive is touch-sensitive, in the area of the trigger. The fuse can also be sensory, or it can be electronic: a tiny microchip implanted under the skin at the base of the thumb of the right hand. There is also a battery and the famous "red button" of the villain Sorg from the movie "The Fifth Element". It serves to communicate with the computer in the handle. A little higher is the LCD screen, which displays the amount of used ammunition. Pressing the red button initiates the destruction of the pistol by detonating all charges. It is clear that if you accidentally press it, it will ask you again, and you will have time to cancel the command, but only then after a few seconds the pistol will be definitely destroyed.
"Mobile" in the handle when pressing the touch trigger (short one shot, long - burst) sends a signal to the microchip of one of the bullets according to the program. It is initiated, a current arises in it, the current burns out the spiral, the charge ignites, a shot follows. Since all the bullets through their cartridges abut against one another, no deformation occurs during recoil.
The Australian designer O'Dwyer has long calculated that overheating will not occur during intense shooting, but "just in case" the pistol has a cooling system: narrow through channels between the barrels. Powder gases, flying out of the barrels, create thrust (as in a Lewis machine gun) and thereby cool the block of barrels from the inside. The more intense the shooting, the stronger the cooling! But his bullets when fired in the barrel "inflate", which prevents the breakthrough of gases. This design is both simpler and more reliable.
Entering the service, the person who is supposed to have such a pistol tests it and … uses it, after which he hands it back to the unit where it is recharged. I fired 12 charges (and the computer in the handle wrote everything down: year, month, date, time), came back … and continue to serve with it. Fired 50% of the charges or more - you hand it over to a training unit, and instead you get a new one. Moreover, the block of barrels (as already noted) can have different calibers - 9-mm, 7, 62-mm, 5, 56-mm - depending on the need and in addition can be interchangeable! So in a combat situation, a fighter with such a pistol can carry two replaceable blocks and 96 charges. With a caliber of 5, 56 mm - 125 shots per block, but only 250 shots!
Mass and size mock-up of a pistol with 16 bore channels and 48 charges.
Well, a completely shot pistol is handed over for recycling, which implements a very important principle of disposability: "Fragile things are bought more often!" That is, for the military industry, this is just a godsend! Although options are possible. For example, this one-piece pistol is designed for only five shots from each barrel and that's it. But it is possible, as already noted above, to make it with replaceable blocks and then only blocks will be disposable, and the pistol itself can last a very long time.
Finally, the barrels in the plastic block can be reinforced with metal tubes, thus increasing the directional radiation of the control panel. Then it can be recharged many times by simply pushing cartridge after cartridge into the barrel. It is clear that the charges of gunpowder in them must be different. In the very first, be larger than in the latter, in order to ensure the same ballistic characteristics of shots and to reduce the spread in initial velocity. But with mass production, this is easy to do, and to distinguish cartridges they can be marked with numbers and colors!
Barrel-magazine of an electronically controlled assault rifle.
Let's fantasize a little more. What if two such cartridges were placed at once on a gun carriage in a swivel mount, one forward, the other backward, and a stock was attached to it at the back? It will turn out … an assault rifle with a very large ammunition load. It has a display on which the number of shots fired is noted, an optical and television sight with output, again, to the same screen. I shot the first block of barrels, turned the swivel mechanism 180 degrees and shoot from the second! Moreover, instead of blocks with bullets, you can load blocks with grenades into it and turn it into a grenade launcher. The charge is small, only to throw the grenade out of the barrel, and then further to the target it is carried by a small rocket "engine".
1 - grooved sleeve at the end of the barrel block; 2 - block of trunks; 3 - front stop of a replaceable barrel on a gun carriage; 4 - thickening of the block in the area of charges placement; 5 - display; 6 - display cover, 7 - breech for fastening barrel blocks; 8 - breech clutch; 9 - breech rotary axis; 10 - carrying handle; 11 - sight control buttons; 12 - sighting device of a video camera and optical sight; 13 - back stop of the replaceable barrel on the gun carriage; 14 - emphasis on the shoulder; 15 - battery; 16 - carriage; 17 - ring for attaching a removable barrel to ammunition; 18 - front handle; 20 - tactical flashlight or laser designator.
But the most interesting thing is that the rotary base of the block can be moved forward along the carriage until it stops and there … it can be turned in a perpendicular position and so fixed. Why is this needed? But why - shoot from around the corner! The television camera on the sight handle transmits the image to the display, you pop out this T-shaped "something" of yours and shoot. Moreover, in this position, the fire is fired simultaneously in both directions, which is achieved - yes - recoilless shooting! Of course, this is not very convenient, you will also have to look in the opposite direction. But in war, in general, you need to be careful to stay alive. But you will be able to shoot perfectly from around the corner, and you will not be seen at all!
Once again, I would like to emphasize that all these are nothing more than ideas that may never come true. But many of them are simple, elegant, are in the trend of development of modern science and technology and … why not express them in this case? Time will tell what will be so and what will be completely different!
Rice. A. Shepsa
