What are some parts to a gatling machine gun?

Answer 1

Gatling gun parts:

Barrels

Crank

Gears

Rotating frame that holds the barrels

Stationary frame that holds the rotating frame, gears and crank-shaft, ammunition magazine, which may be a box, or the magazine may be a belt similar to some true machine guns

Internal parts - the feeding mechanism, extracting mechanism, bolts

Mount - may be fixed or swiveling depending on application

Manually operated Gatlings are not classed as "machine guns" as they fire only once for a given movement of the crank. Powered Gatlings, though, are classed as machine guns because they will fire repeatedly as long as the trigger switch or valve is held in the "on" position until the gun magazine runs out of ammunition or the burst fire counting mechanism turns the gun's operating motor off. A clock spring type drive or a firing gas powered drive (as are many conventional automatic weapons) would also make the gun a "machine gun" according to the National Firearms Act of 1934, incorporated into the Gun Control Act of 1968.

When you see accounts of powered Gatlings firing at 2,000, 4,000, 6,000, 10,000, whatever, rounds per minute, that does not mean it can run that long without overheating or running out of ammunition. It is its rate of fire. If it can fire for, say, 10 seconds at 6,000 RPM, in those 10 seconds it will have fired 1,000 cartridges.

Gatlings have been built from .22 rimfire to at least 30 mm (1.18") as mounted on the A-10 Warthog. There is no real limit to the size of the Gatling principle, though a 120 mm would weigh several tons and have to either be ship mounted or ground-based on a fixed mount. See a 30mm being fired on a test bench: www.liveleak.com/view?i=2de_1244153867

Principal advantages of the Gatling gun:

High rate of fire - 2,000 rpm-6,000+rpm as compared to 800 or so rpm for a regular machine gun.

Multiple barrels provide better cooling for the same rate of fire: each barrel is used only a fraction as often as the single barrel machine gun would be used. On an aircraft, the forward motion of the craft pushes air through the unoccupied barrels.

The rotating action of the barrels improve cooling

Not dependent on power from the cartridges for cycling (a Russian Gryazev-Shipunov 23 mm is, firing-gas-powered at 10,000 rpm)

If a cartridge misfires, it is ejected just as if it had fired. A firing gas- or recoil-powered machine gun stops if it misfires and has to be manually cycled to get the dead cartridge out before it can be fired again.

If one barrel is damaged, such as by a squib fired bullet getting stuck in the barrel, that barrel can be cut out of the firing sequence and not reloaded (which would cause a barrel burst, putting the entire gun out of service and possibly injuring personnel). The defective barrel can be changed out later.

Gatlings are useful for aircraft, vehicle and ship mounted applications. For a given caliber, Gatlings are heavy and cumbersome to handle. Their signature (smoke and flash) is considerable, which draws enemy fire from longer range weapons (cannon and missiles). Their usefulness to infantry is limited as a result, especially when confronting enemy armies of similar technological advancement.

Outstanding modern Gatling-principle guns are the 7.62 mm (.30 cal) Minigun, the Vulcan 20 mm as mounted on fighter aircraft and as door guns on gunships, helicopter mounts, and the Avenger 30 mm as used on the Warthog (this aircraft was designed around the 30 mm Gatling) tank killer. The 30 mm will also take down the "flying tank" helicopter gunships like the Russian Hind, which 20 mm has trouble destroying.

A Gatling principle gun with a single barrel is the "revolver cannon," which has a rotating cylinder vaguely like a revolver handgun. The cylinder is loaded and extracted in the same manner as a multibarrel Gatling. This gun is much lighter weight than a multiple long barrel Gatling but is suitable for only short bursts. But as the revolver cannon is normally used only in short bursts (it consumes enormous quantities of ammunition in a very short time), this is not usually a detraction.