railgun bullet so fast it ignites the air behind it *photo*
 

Please post story to go with picture. Cause something in my pea sized brain is thinking something is not right about it going so fast it ignites air behind it. Friction I get etc but well give me link please.

...and diesel engines are predisposed to exploding.

is it not letting off any gasses or exhaust?


edit - if its a true railgun i retract my question ;)

here is the video

https://youtube.com/watch?v=i1q_rRicAwI

wow that looks sweet

Even the video seems a bit well wierd.

Wow..never heard of that before..cool pic

it wasn't "igniting the air". the article isn't clear but it seems to be trailing particles of the projectile

I'll take two, please.

It's great for sniping but I still prefer the rocket launcher.

Quake 2! Was it 1998... 1999? Spent hours and hours and hours on this game back then.

hehe... me too!

I LOVED Quake2

The last video game I played was on Sega cd :Oh crap

looks pretty cool :thumbsup

this thing took my teenage years away

I used to play a shitton of Q2 rail-only instagib... well into 2001, and then finally adopted Q3A and played rail-only instagib until 2004 or so.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

WTF are they firing it at? A piece of target paper?

Cool pic! I missed the whole Quake thing, I played more Nintendo then PC games back in the day. Now I don't have much time to play anything, damn adulthood :Oh crap

Here are a couple, it is from a test of a new Naval weapon..

http://www.onr.navy.mil/emrg/electro...ic-railgun.asp

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/m...99-1n2gun.html

Military story:
http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=34718

It's not igniting the air.

Thats the plastic sabot of the projectile, vaporizing and burning as it is ripped off the projectile during the firing.

so, it's basically a typical hydrocarbon combustion. But pretty.

I was a Q2 master....I forget the name of the particle gun that once you fire it, anybody ahead of it is toast....Well I remember coming around a corner and seeing dude start to fire his shit up...I just stepped to the side and blew his head off with a super shotgun...

:1orglaugh

Quake: When you're just not good enough for Counter Strike. :)

If its a railgun, there should be no plastic... and its not "fired"...

its projected... with magnetic fields...

thats why im wondering if its a true railgun...

They are two totally different games. And I have played both and mastered them. :thumbsup !

Have a look at some trick jumping videos for Quake. Now that takes skill.

wow that's just insane

IMO its not great for sniping, the trail will easily give away the position of the sniper. :2 cents:

i would like to know where they use such a weapon for. not for hunting i hope.

It's a true railgun photo. Thats a ground mounted test shot of the new naval railgun.

The projectile is a round (conical, technically) shaft of steel - the plastic sabot holds it in position so the magnetic fields can accellerate it accurately.

I assure you there's a plastic sabot, it's easy to find this stuff out.

It's still called "firing", altho there is no chemical propellent.

Shooting down planes, altho it could also hit ships in line-of-sight. It's not a ballistic gun, there's no explosive shell, the energy of the steel bolt alone makes the kill.

Wow, cool picture!