Posted on 05/19/2008 1:19:35 PM PDT by neverdem
Way down a dusty gravel road, tucked deep in Redstone Arsenal, right at the border's edge, hails a story that verges on legend, of a gun so big and so fast that people question its existence. It's said that people often talk about it in hushed tones, almost giving it a mythical feel. The tale has only grown over the years.
"Every once in awhile, there will be someone, someone who works on the arsenal, who'll say, 'I hear you've got a big gun down there,' " says Brian Akins, research scientist and range engineer at the Aerophysics Research Center (ARC). "They talk about it almost like it's an urban legend."
It's no tall tale or urban legend. It's true. There is a big gun down there, and what a big gun it is.
HYPERVELOCITY
Operated by the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the Hypervelocity Interior Ballistics Free-Flight Test Range is a monster of a gun. Big, at approximately 500 feet long and weighing 160 tons, and fast, having often propelled objects way past Mach 10, the 254-millimeter, two-stage light gas gun is housed in a 50,000-plus-square-foot building that runs the length of three football fields at the edge of the arsenal's Army test area.
The big gun and two others that are common in design but smaller in size are used to determine what happens when objects of different sizes come in contact with another object at various speeds.
"It takes gun powder first," says Dick Rhoades, director of the UAH Research Institute and professor of engineering management who also oversees the ARC. "Then hydrogen is compressed to a very high pressure, which then pushes what you want to fly in a tube. For example, a lot of work is done for the Army to see how various warheads would work in contact with tanks and other warheads."
APPLICATIONS
Technically, the two major areas of application for the facility are in phenomenology related to hypervelocity impact and hypervelocity flight in Earth's atmosphere, according to information provided by UAH. The applications in hypervelocity impact include the development and evaluation of the lethality of kinetic energy weapons for strategic and tactical systems and kill assignment.
The hypervelocity impact tests can involve single or multiple fragments, single or multiple rods and various configurations of hit-to-kill vehicles. UAH has demonstrated capabilities to evaluate test parameters, which can include projectile mass, material, configuration, relative strike velocity, strike angle, active attitude control of projectile pitch/yaw and shot line, and various target configurations and materials.
The hypervelocity flight phenomenology tests can be used for studies of signature and hypersonic flow related to re-entry, to study the effects of high-speed flight on interceptor sensors and for propulsion research with regard to high-speed vehicle/inlet flow and combustion.
The range has proved its value in developing and understanding of the physical basis for coherent radar signatures scattered from the body and wakes of re-entry vehicles.
The ballistics range also has demonstrated its capability to determine the effects of boundary layer plasma on the bore-site error of millimeter wave sensors onboard interceptors. For aero-optics and aero-thermal effects studies, it is possible to perform experiments in which one-fourth to about one-half scale fore-body models of the interceptor configuration are launched at full-scale flight velocities. High-speed flow and combustion can be investigated by launching scaled models under free-flight conditions through various simulated altitudes from ground level to about 65 kilometers.
GOLF BALLS, TOO
How the actual testing takes place is relatively simple, says Mark Zwiener, research scientist and manager of range operations at the Aerophysics Research Center. The big gun itself can be compared to a regular gun on a Navy battle ship. It runs on piston compression. Tested objects of different sizes and weights - ranging from bullets to nose cones to rods and spheres - are encased in a piston made from high-density polyurethane (think of an extremely thick milk jug) and loaded into the gun. A breech nut secures parts of the gun. An X-ray is taken of the projectile as it leaves the muzzle to capture its initial condition, and off the object goes in free flight. Zwiener says that depending on the size and weight of the object, it takes 15-20 milliseconds for the object to get from the muzzle to the "end of the road." As the object hits its target, another X-ray is taken to capture the object's condition, as well as the condition of the target site and inside of the gun.
Even golf balls have been put through the rigors of the big gun, shooting through at 2.71 kilometers per second, which equates to 8,897 feet per second, or 6,062 miles per hour.
"It doesn't get dull," Akins says. "We test so many things, and there's always something different."
The hypervelocity test range was created near Santa Barbara, Calif. in the mid- to late 1960s by a company called Delco Electronics.
"It was used to see if space suits would be damaged by micro meteorites, little particles," Rhoades says. "By the end of the '80s, the principle customer using it was what is now the Space and Missile Defense Command."
While SMDC wanted to continue testing, Rhoades says the customers had dwindled to the point where their number was smaller than Delco wanted to serve.
"So, the Space and Missile Defense Command approached UAH to see if the university could be given the equipment," says Rhoades. "Around 1990, guns and a lot of other stuff were given to the university. SMDC wanted it in the Huntsville area. So the university, with the Army, decided the best place - rather than locate it on campus since it involves gun powder - was in the test-range area of the arsenal."
With the help of some Delco employees who made a trek to Huntsville, operations were up and running on the arsenal by 1991. By the late '90s, UAH decided to consolidate some of its centers, so the Aerophysics Research Center was formed and Rhoades, a former Army officer and teacher, took the reins.
BIGGEST TEST RANGE
In addition to performing contract research for government agencies and corporations, ARC is a training ground for undergraduate and graduate students, and the academic staff. The UAH site is the only one in the country with a test range this large. Aerospace students are provided access to it for testing, and it is invaluable when it comes to thesis-writing time.
"There are other light-gas guns around, but they're not this size and can do some testing on a smaller scale," says Rhoades. "But when you have a need for speed, the big gun is the one to use."
It is also cost-effective. Rhoades says customers may pay $10,000-$20,000 for some tests and $25,000-$50,000 for others, depending on the size and scope of the experiment. Since testing is performed in a ballistic range instead of a full-scale flight test, it's the difference in paying tens of thousands of dollars and paying tens of millions. Much of that money is tied up in making prototypes, Rhoades says, most of which are done in-house.
Turn-around time on experiments is relatively quick. Experiments in the range can be implemented in weeks, whereas full-scale tests could take as long as several months to years. In addition, the relatively low cost and rapid response is useful in the early stages of program definition by providing the capability to screen concepts for selection of program options and by reducing risks by validating computer simulations at critical points.
The number of tests performed depends on requests from customers and on what condition the gun is in after each experiment. While the test may take less than a second, Akins and Zwiener agree that cleanup and repair time could take several weeks. While every aspect of the gun is big, only eight or nine people are required to operate it.
"We're broken down into the gun crew, the instrumentation crew and the machinists," Zwiener says. "Everybody here wears many hats."
While 90 percent of work done at the ARC is impact-related, there's more to it than that.
"The other thing we do, other than just impact work," says Zwiener, "is manufacture custom prototype guns, which is very cost-effective for our customers."
MANY CUSTOMERS
ARC has numerous customers from coast to coast, including the government, industry and commercial clients. Rhoades says its biggest customer is the Military Research and Development Center, for which it works on missile head development, discovering what happens when a warhead smashes into other warheads or tanks and how to better destroy mortars.
"Missile defense systems use the basic data on how they would destroy missiles acquired through our testing," Rhoades says. "Also, we've almost fielded a new anti-tank system but ran out of money. It would involve kinetic energy missiles and use a long, heavy rod that flies in front of the missile and goes into, say, a tank and melts its way through the armor of a tank. It wouldn't explode but work its way through at a very high speed."
Despite its many uses, size and speed, there is a misconception about the big gun: that it is as loud as it is large when tests are performed.
"It's really not too loud," says Akins. "People think it's going to be really loud, but it's really more like a big balloon popping. It probably has some customers asking, 'Is that what I paid for?'"
My .50 makes the same kind of noise...
Are there plans to make a handgun version of this gun soon?
I have the handgun version already. I have a long backorder on the 500 foot long holster, though.
“Even golf balls have been put through the rigors of the big gun, shooting through at 2.71 kilometers per second, which equates to 8,897 feet per second, or 6,062 miles per hour.
“It doesn’t get dull,” Akins says. “We test so many things, and there’s always something different.” “
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Sounds like “Mythbusters” with a MUCH larger budget. Damn, what a fun job these people have!
For anyone interested in a firearms-related website version of “Mythbusters”, check out The Box O’ Truth http://www.theboxotruth.com/
Thanks for the link.
Simply not true.
The NASA Free Flight Ballistic Range in Sunnyvale, CA has achieved Mach 18 or something close, and by firing a projectile into the muzzle blast of a cannon (firing blanks) at the far end of the test chamber, Mach numbers in the low 20s can be achieved.
Mach 10 is not to be sneezed at, but it is far from the biggest in the country.
Cool.
Now at that initial velocity, how far away would you put the tee from the green? According to a golf web site, "Are there proxies for how ball speed relates to driver distance? Yes, in general most golfers cannot hit a driver more than 250 yards carry unless they can generate a ball speed greater than 150 MPH. Most average golfers, with ball speeds of about 130 MPH, will carry the driver an average of 200 – 225 yards. Most lower ball speed players (less than 120 MPH) will hit their driver less than 180 yards carry."
Answer: The drive (linear and not counting air resistance) would be 10,025 yards / 5.7 miles - DON'T slice or hook, you'll never find it!
I wanna play with it.
For example, they tested the new Taurus model called "The Judge" and "judged" it ineffective based on low penetration. The standard they used was 12 inches of penetration. This may be definitive for a shot to the center of mass, but this gun was primarily designed to repel car jackers. That means the primary target is going to be a head shot at very close range. Applying the results to a human instead of a water jug puts a whole new light on the matter. Even penetration of only 4-6 inches will therefore put 5 forty caliber projectiles well inside the human brain to be instantly fatal. But let's say the pellets miss the cranial vault, I'd say having ones eyesight taken (permanently) and the loss of (literally) FACE would be a very effective deterrent to a car jacker. So while fun and informative I do not put all my eggs into the box-o-"truth" when it comes to judging MY survival weapons.
And no gun porn?
Space ping.
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