mini gun
 

Don't know if this video has been posted before, enjoy (if you have blocked popups,you need to press control key as you click on link)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...68927161385975

I flew a Cobra in VIetnam that had 4 miniguns on it. Kept a small town employed making bullets for them. At night, it looked like a fire-hose. Literally, a hose spraying fire.

What was the spacing between tracer and standard rounds?

Now I definately know what I want for Christmas

Minigun
 

Happiness is a warm minigun and a conex container full of ammo.:}

1up Spacing was usually 1/4 So every fifth round was a tracer. It still looked like a red line due to the amount of ammo going through.
As Nick will tell you nothing could make one more mad than a jam. Seems if you release the trigger prior to the limiter switch they seem to eat bullets in the mechanism.
I think today thats pretty much history.
By the way that video was put to gether near Maricopa Arizona by a company that is manufacturing mini guns. I dont know if its on their website but heres the address. www.dillonprecision.com They specialize in great reloading equipment and are located on/near the Scottsdale AZ airport...
The owner has his own surplus UH-1 Huey and a MD-500D. Both in pristine condition last I saw.

I wondered why that war cost so much.....now Nick...did you ever hit anything with all them bullets?:E

St Exupery (author of The little Prince) once wrote:
"...The first to bring a gun aboard his aircraft was a bastard..."

Elena........What are you smokin??

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7229/cobrahitoi1.jpg

Thats verry interesting because it seems that this configuration was not verry common.
Was it the 7.62mm M134 weapon?
Can you please describe how they were installed?
Was it two in the chin turret and two under the wings?
Or were they just under the wings? Two miniguns under each wing?

Sign me up for one!
 

I could od with one Landcruiser wing mounted to assist the minibus drivers out of the way in East Africa!:ok:

Hotz,
The standard kit on an AH-1G had one minigun (M134) in the turret, alongside a 40MM grenade launcher. Both were fed from an ammo bay right behind the turret, with slide-out drums. The minigun held 4000 rounds and the "chunker" held just over 300. The wing stores usualy held rocket pods, most often 19 shot inboard and 7 shot outboard. On the Cobra I mentioned, the turret had 2 miniguns, and the inboard wingstores had two XM-18 minigun pods (which held 1500 rounds each in a special de-linked electric feeder.
A few birds had the XM-35 20mm gun on the left inboard station, and saddlebag ammo bays on both sides of the fuselage. A fine gun, the last snake I flew had one, we called it "Mighty Mouse" and the crew chief painted some great nose art on it.

Like Bsouza says, the miniguns could jam fairly easily, I kept a few new bolts in my leg pocket along with a tube of LSA lubricant (monkeycum), and could rebuild a gun in a few seconds if it jammed badly.

The guns were accurate, and deadly. I took the tile roof off a house once, it tossed tiles all over the place.
The weapon that told the real story was the 2.75" rockets. They packed a punch, had relatively long range (accurate at 2-3 clicks, deadly at 1 click), and we carried enough to do some damage. The 10 lb warhead was standard, we had a 17 pound warhead, and a 10 lb VT fused version (a white round radar in the nose set it off a few meters above ground, for better effect). Each round hit like an artillery round, so with 52 to 72 rockets per Cobra, a pair of snakes could deliver about as much firepower as an artillery battery could toss out in an hour.

The video also displays, in a minor way, a couple of the drawbacks of that truly wonderful weapon- the minigun: the volume of fire blows stuff to bits, obscuring a target, and making a point-type weapon into an area-type weapon; and it uses a lot of ammunition... Which is also a very good thing, in that all that ball ends right where the gun's pointed, if you can still see target to shoot.

Hotenplotz
Your photo is a recent one from beautiful downtown Bagdhad. That would be the AH-1W used by the Marines. Its still the same old airframe that has gone through many changes. The Army always used single engine whereas the Navy/Marine Corps for obvious reasons had two. The Marine Corps has done well and are now getting a newer version of the Cobra with four blades. It must be really sweet.
As Nick also didnt mention when he was flying the Cobra, consider it was a closed cockpit and the first ones in Vietnam had no Air Conditioner. Extremely hot. Later models had what was called an ECU (Enviornmental Control Unit) which took bleed air and cooled it down enough that it spit ice..............So Nice. Also as it was a Bell product you could take full fuel or full ordinance but you couldnt take both. The Apache solved that.....

...... just found this ;-)))

http://www.dillonaero.com/videos.html

Devil49, I actually think your "drawbacks" are huge pluses: And you forgot it sounds fantastic.

Blowing stuff to bits is why I like pulling the trigger, it rarely if ever obscures the target (that video was not using 4B1T), it is an area weapon that can be pointed extremely accurately with a danger close distance that makes cannon type weapons systems very jealous, and it's use of ammo just makes the noise better, the target fly apart more, and enables more accuracy!

Nothing like emptying an entire infantry sections' weapon load loose in 3.17 seconds from each of your two (or four if you are lucky enough to be Nick) minis!

All good.:8

Good find! :ok:
What kind of helicopter is this?
Two guns?
http://www.dillonaero.com/gallery1/Dual-Guns.jpg
Is it an AH-6 or a MH-60L DAP
http://www.specialoperations.com/Ima...mh-60lside.jpg

The helo pictured is the DAP, an MH-60L with a pair of GAU-19 50 cal gatling guns in the door that could also be fixed forward and a 30MM chain gun on the wing store. This particular shot is of the aircraft with a short wing store. With the larger ESSS the outboard could hold a 19 shot rocket pods or 4 hellfires.
Here is a photo of the 4-store MH-60K:
http://www.globalspecialoperations.c...h60ldap360.jpg
The DAP is used by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (the Nighthawks) and is the most heavily armed helicopter in the US Army inventory, including the Apache.
Here is a DAP with stingers outboard and mixed ordnance inboard:
http://unx1.shsu.edu/%7Elib_kab/Pics/Mh60-1.jpg

DAP stands for Direct Action Penetrator, a way to keep the Apache people from coming unglued while the aircraft was being designed, since the Special Ops has no intention of employing the Apache. With the ability to carry troops, extra ammo and other goodies (think of what can be mounted on the wings!) it is an awesome fighter helicopter.

we could use a few of those daps in oz:cool:

The folks in Oz turned it down! When the armed helo was being competed in Australia, Sikorsky offered the DAP, but the Powers that Be chose the Tiger, which the DAP could carry on its cargo hook, drop, use for a target and then fly home for a smoke.

Nice Toy, better than throwing beer cans at enemies.

Too bad it was designed to kill people, it would have been fun to have just as a toy, without having to actually use it for what it was designed.

Tiger V DAP.
Of course we could have used the DAP in Oz...it was the obvious choice to almost everyone except the project team. Importantly for a country like Oz it offered the following advantages over the Tiger:
1. Range Range and more Range. Not many FARPS in Oz.
2. Carries lots of hate, plus it's own reload. Not many FARPS in Oz.
3. Can pick up downed aircrew. Not many aircraft in Oz.
4. Commonality with existing fleet (though that is now going to change). Not many maintainers in Oz.
5. Wont get shot down as "foriegn" around the Yanks (though no gaurantee). The Yanks are the most likely in-theatre Allies - as opposed to the French.
6. The Yanks can refuel, re-arm, and repair the thing.
7. Most appropriate armament/ordnance mix for Oz environment.

BUT..... the Kiowa guys on the project team would not be seen dead in one!!:E

Oh, AND..... they tied the "Armed" bit to Recce, not utility, so they could get a skinny two seater, thus the DAP was no chance from the start.

Although this compromised on the Aerial Fire Support role, it did lead to the acquisition of a very fine armed recce helicopter - probably the world's best.

As long as the grunts don't need close in support, the colonels don't need battlefield viewpoints, we also acquire a light utility airframe for the command and liason, and there are lots of Yank DAPs about to help us, the Tiger will fully meet the needs of the Australian Army for decades to come.:ok:

Arm Up.

....to BlenderPilot

you are right - the best way is only using for fun .....

http://www.armamentsales.com/downloads/minigun2005.wmv

and for technical information ...

http://www.montysminiguns.com/RealityPage.htm

"Too bad it was designed to kill people, it would have been fun to have just as a toy, without having to actually use it for what it was designed."

Oscar whats with this?? Would you rather use Paint Balls in Combat??

Of course it all depends on who's pulling the trigger...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ7XmZZk1Tc

Thanks NickLappos
 

Hi Nick,

As an old Charlie model driver, I can really appreciate the DAP. I always liked having two extra pairs of eyes in the air, and extra firepower if you ended up on the ground. The DAP would have been nice in Chu Lai.

Cheers,
musket33

musket33,
Is that the Chu Lai Muskets, guardians of the Minutemen? Do you know Dave Young from Broken Arrow, OK?

Chu Lai muskets
 

Hi Nick,

Yes, I was a minuteman and then a musket. I flew a lot with Dave Young. Never heard anything from him after I left sunny southeast asia. Would be glad to get any info on him you might have. I also was a Saber for a few brief months on my extention tour.

Cheers,
musket33

Musket33,
World = Very Small!
Dave is in Broken Arrow, he stopped by at Sikorsky when picking up a Black Hawk (the Heavy Utility Helicopter that the Guard once had the right to fly!) Somewhere I have his phore #, he and I were in flight school together (69-5)
Sabre 74

NickLappos
 

Hi Nick,

Sent you a personel message. Sounds like we both know a different Dave Young.

Cheers,
musket33

Why are the yanks so gun ho? Not to spoil your fun but in sensible terms this sort of thing really is to blame for the shoot first and ask questions later mentality. A serious problem that comes down from the top. Sorry to dampen your enthusiasm for wars which have turned to failures. Get back to helicopter themes and not venture into deadly toys.

If you are in a fair fight, you didn't plan it properly.

Actually, I used to shoot first and never asked any questions....

Head Turner, just dont venture back to the states in a boat loaded with Tea. We do need to win one .......Again.........

Stop being so Anti-American! Just because the Brits used to be the victims in all the friendly-fire incidences... They use Canadians now.

:} ;)
As we have the Cobra Experts here, do you know why the snake on the picture has no landing gear?
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/9218/ah102qr1.jpg
and another interesting picture:
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/6672/pic106cy8.jpg

Nick; if I may ask, how did you guys go about firing at night? Am I mistaken that NVG's back then were non-existent? Or was it purely for the psychological effect it had seeing something breath fire, so to speak.

I hear those PsyOps stories about the "puff the magic dragon" a DC-3 armed to the teeth supporting the broadcasts that smaller planes below made, this DC-3 was supposedly thought of as a "angry beast" up in the sky that punished those who did not follow.

Well, best guess is that was the factory first (AH-1G/ B209) with retractable skids...... Too much weight and limited the aircraft internal storage.
Also notice which side the Tail Rotor is located..... That changed when the G went into production.

I think the GAU-8 is the backbone of the A-10 Warthog.

Yes, of course you are right. And the GAU-8 is way to big to be mounted on a helicopter. But it is an impressive picture to see the glowing barrels of a minigun.

And as to the Cobra Skidgear?? etc??

I have no idea, that's why I'm asking.