Helical railgun
Helical railguns[1] are multi-turn railguns that reduce rail and brush current by a factor equal to the number of turns. Two rails are surrounded by a helical barrel and the projectile or re-usable carrier is cylindrical. The projectile is energized continuously by two brushes sliding along the rails, and two or more additional brushes on the projectile serve to energize and commute several windings of the helical barrel direction in front of and/or behind the projectile. The helical railgun is a cross between a railgun and a coilgun. They do not currently exist in a practical, usable form.
A helical railgun was built at MIT in 1980 and was powered by several banks of, for the time, large capacitors (approximately 4 farads). It was about 3 meters long, consisting of 2 meters of accelerating coil and 1 meter of decelerating coil. It was able to launch a glider or projectile about 500 meters.
See also[]
- Railgun
- Plasma railgun
- Coilgun
- Mass driver
- Ram accelerator
- Light-gas gun
- Electrothermal-chemical technology
- Henry Kolm
References[]
- Kolm, H.; et al. (1980). "Electromagnetic Guns, Launchers, and Reaction Engines". 2Nd International Pulsed Power Conference. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 42. Bibcode:1979pupo.conf...42K.
- Specific
 | This article related to weaponry is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by . |
 | This article relating to artillery is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by . |
- Electromagnetic components
- Artillery by type
- Railguns
- Weapon stubs
- Artillery stubs