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Centrifigal gun

If you get a chance to watch the pumpkin chucking competition videos, there is actually a class of pumpkin throwing machine that uses the same principle. The load the pumpkin on it then spin it. When it gets to full rpm, they release the pumpkin at the proper point to launch it to get the greatest range. The machines look really dangerous with the large diameter wheel spinning and making noise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz_M1_L_z3I
 
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Not really new idea. :)

There was also a centrifugal tank machine gun called CP (or TsP, for centrifugal machine gun) proposed in the USSR in 1934. It was to launch 13.5 mm steel balls at 3000-6000 rpm.
Muzzle velocity was to be 360 m/s, range just 1000 m. The gun mounted in a BT-5 tank needed an additional electric generator, occupied the whole turret, leaving no place for the crew and another armament, and the tank would be 1000 kg heavier than in standard version armed with a 45 mm cannon and 1-2 mgs. The project was eventually dropped.
Click to expand...
 
Grzesio said:
Not really new idea. :)
Click to expand...

Indeed it isn't - this keeps surfacing from time to time.

One problem which is not mentioned is that it only works with spherical balls, which have a terrible ballistic coefficient so are only effective at very short range - they lose velocity very quickly.

The other point to note is that it most certainly does not have "no recoil" - Newton's Third Law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That means that if the projectiles travel in one direction, the gun recoils in the opposite direction with equal force. It would be true to say that there is "reduced recoil", as the element of recoil generated by the high-velocity propellant gas escaping from the muzzle is no longer present.
 
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