Prototype Laser Gatling Gun Unveiled

[Goofguy]

Proof of concept, lots of places to develop from here. Sure the rotating part is unnecessary but the whole thing is pretty damn cool.

 

[StewShearerOld]

Wow, this seems pointless on every level.

It's not even a Gatling gun, being so would mean that only one laser at a time would be on - not all of them. This would actually be beneficial if this was a real thing as it would give time for the other lasers to cool down and with them only being on for fractions of seconds at a time meaning that they won't get very hot anyway.

Also, the title is really misleading. I only clicked it because I thought that they had actually made a fully working laser Gatling gun for use in the military for shooting down missiles, for example. Not a few high power Lasers stuck to a motor.

Tweaked the title a little bit. Thanks for the input!

 

[JaredXE]

Try to think of the coolest weapon ever devised by a human mind. If your answer to this question is anything other than the gatling gun from <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RbL4PwTDsQ>Terminator 2 (the one from Predator was a runner up), then you're doing it wrong.

I think most Imperial Space Marines would disagree. The Bolter is a handheld, fully automatic gun capable of firing .75 caliber armour-piercing, high-explosive, self-propelled grenades. With little to no recoil.

 

[WWmelb]

regardless of whether or not this is practical or worthwhile... it is cool.

And i wants one.

Hey santa ... christmas is nearing...

 

[tangoprime]

My response to a friend linking this video to me went pretty much like this:
I was really hoping when I saw the beginning that it wasn't just 6 pointers spinning around. Honestly, this thing would've been way cooler if it was just one recessed behind the firing barrel position and it would get "strobed" as the other barrels crossed it, making it look like it was firing in pulses with the spinning barrels. This is stupid AND insanely expensive to equip with multiple blue lasers.

 

[unstabLized]

Cool, but what's the point of the spinning? and I was like "meh" until he popped the balloons. More points cause of that.

 

[Souplex]

The nerd in me says that's pretty cool. The engineer in me points out that there is no reason to mount the lasers into a rotating chamber, and that it's a waste of power.

Gives each laser a chance to cool down so it doesn't melt itself.
I haven't actually gotten to watch the video, so I don't know if it's necessary for it to spin.
Also, I'm sure this thing is a lot more accurate than your standard gatling gun.
Edit: Plus since it doesn't have to fire solid ammunition it's probably a lot lighter.

 

[RJ 17]

Gotta say I like the design of the thing...looks like something straight out of Doom! Really, though, I was hoping for some Star Wars *PEW! PEW!* sounds.

Still, though, that's actually the second coolest weapon I've heard about in the past week. The first being a new sniper rifle that allows anyone using it to make a perfect shot up to half a mile away. It calculates for wind speed and direction, distance, and everything else you'd need to calculate for making a sniper shot and actually locks the trigger so you can't fire until you're aiming at the right spot in relation to the target. People who had never even held a gun in their life were making shots that normally only a handful of people in the world could do.


Ummm...yeah...that's actually pretty god damn terrifying when you think of what it could do in the wrong hands... >.>

 

[uchytjes]

Gotta say I like the design of the thing...looks like something straight out of Doom! Really, though, I was hoping for some Star Wars *PEW! PEW!* sounds.

Still, though, that's actually the second coolest weapon I've heard about in the past week. The first being a new sniper rifle that allows anyone using it to make a perfect shot up to half a mile away. It calculates for wind speed and direction, distance, and everything else you'd need to calculate for making a sniper shot and actually locks the trigger so you can't fire until you're aiming at the right spot in relation to the target. People who had never even held a gun in their life were making shots that normally only a handful of people in the world could do.


Ummm...yeah...that's actually pretty god damn terrifying when you think of what it could do in the wrong hands... >.>

Uhm... that is really terrifying. REALLY terrifying. Could you imagine that in the hands of some would-be assassin? Sometimes, I'm really damn afraid of technology.

 

[TIMESWORDSMAN]

The nerd in me says that's pretty cool. The engineer in me points out that there is no reason to mount the lasers into a rotating chamber, and that it's a waste of power.

Gives each laser a chance to cool down so it doesn't melt itself.
I haven't actually gotten to watch the video, so I don't know if it's necessary for it to spin.
Also, I'm sure this thing is a lot more accurate than your standard gatling gun.
Edit: Plus since it doesn't have to fire solid ammunition it's probably a lot lighter.

All the lasers seem to be on at the same time, so I don't think they're getting much cooling time, spinning or no. If it was spinning faster and there was some sort of ventilation system, I could see it performing a cooling duty.

If only it was actually as interesting a feat of engineering as it's title would suggest.

 

[MHR]

What I want to know is why the lasers are being used to massacre BLACK balloons

Doesn't seem right

 

[Operative1980]

Before they actually 'fired it' I thought "OH no!! its powered by Double A batteries. gonna be so dangerous"

 

[Lazy Kitty]

I guess I'm doing it wrong, because my answer is either lightsaber or Death Star.

 

[Aeshi]

I'm pretty sure the problem powerful lasers has less to do with chamber containing the gain medium becoming too hot and more the power supply overheating from sustained use (someone feel free to correct me on that).

Even if that's the case then what I said still stands. Just replace "Laser Focusing Chamber" with "Power Supply"

 

[Fijiman]

Well that was lame. I have to admit that the thing looks cool, but they could have done better. Plus, they didn't even bother to have the barrel spinning when they popped the balloons. >8(

I was kind of expecting more than 6 laser pointers attached to a motor. I want to see this thing unleashed on a hall of mirrors full of cats. That would be a video worth watching.

I agree, that would be entertaining.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

"Setting fire to human skin"

When I'm an evil overlord, my henchmen will have Gatling lasers.

 

[Strazdas]

wouldnt focusing all those lazers on one spot make it much more efficient in terns of actual damage. if this can burn skin, 6 in one spot could potentialy slice your meat no? of coruse that creatse problems with focusing based on distance, but it seems to have a small aiming lazer (green), so could that be used to measure the distance perhaps and autoadjust, sort of like how camera objectives autofocus?