Luftpanzer I

[RotorheadTX]

As Jennings says so often.... "Discuss."

[dragon]

Sorry, I can't discuss this- otherwise guys in black might knock on my door and I might get chased by black helicopters  

What would the US Army counter with? B)  

[BlackOps]

Cool idea but would a swivel turret be necessary if the whole vehicle could probably rotate as quickly as the turret? Maybe more like the Swedish tanks.

On the other hand maybe it is better so when they are dug into a position they can still aim.

Either way I like it!


Jeff G.

[GTX]

I just wonder what the effect will be of firing the main gun - I don't see anything to hold the vehicle in place.

Regards,

Greg

[Sisko]

So wrong but so right!!!

I'm with greg on this one would be bitch when the main gun fires

[GTX]

Further to my last comment, this model makes me think of the 'Hover Tank' in the SGT Bilko movie from 1996 starring Steve Martin.

Regards,

Greg

[BlackOps]

OK, maybe that's why the independent turret...maybe it recoils on a track to counter the shock...kind of like some of HK's newer rifles.

Another thing that I didn't think about would be all of the steering would have to be done from the turret also...sure wouldn't want to be anycloser to the fan than that!



Jeff G.

[GTX]

Something similar:



Regards,

Greg

[Alvis 3.1]

Massively cool!
Gun recoil issues: Easily countered by anchoring the vehicle with rapid deployment plunger type struts. 3, maybe 4 would shoot down like some sort of brobdingnian (sp?) tent pegs, then boom!



Alvis 3.1

[philp]

Come on, it is obviously a Rail Gun, no recoil.

Or, the vehicle adjusts fan power to counter the recoil from any direction.

Nah, rail gun is easier to explain.

Oh, by the way, I lover Hovertanks.

[Aircav]

Hmmm............. What conter-acts the recoil on a hover tank ?

[Radish]

Bollocks, it's lovely.

Who cares about recoil issues? They'll invent the technology to deal with it.
Fantastic.  

[Gary]

Recoiless rounds like on the Sheridan. Sweet build.  

[dexter059]

My oh My, That´s so COOOOOOL

Flying tanks GREAT

cheers    

[Madoc]

Folks,

Rail guns having no recoil?

Recoil-less guns like on the Sheridan?

Hovercraft as main battle tanks?

Huh?

First off, RotorheadTX, that's a cool model!  I think it looks great and thank you for sharing the results of your work with us.

As to the facts...

Rail guns operate in accordance with real world physics.  Thus they surely do have a recoil.  Lotsa recoil, in fact.  The recoil from a gunpowder powered projectile weapon isn't due to the gunpowder exploding it's due to the gunpowder forcing the projectile out the barrel - and forcing the barrel / gun backward with the "equal and opposit reaction."  Same / same with a rail gun.  Just no messy and slow chemical based explosion.

The Sheridan mounted a smoothbore cannon that also had one heckuva recoil.  Back in Vietnam the US Marines had their Ontos which was a small armored vehicle which mounted six recoillless rifles on its hull.  That's about as close and any tank that I know of which mounted any sort of recoilless gun as its main weapon.

Now, as to hovercraft being suitable combat vehicles, well, no.

They look cool and all but the way they operate precludes their use as such.  As landing craft and / or specialized small patrol craft, sure.  As a "main battle tank" or its equivalent?  No.  First there's the recoil issue as mentioned.  Next there's the fact that hovercraft simply do not do hills.  Period.  Oh, they can bull their way over small rises in terrain but they simply will not go up hills very far at all.  That thin film of air which they ride over the surface with also means they've no traction.  Thus they crap out at even moderate grades.  Sorry.  Then there's the fact that hovercraft come with a "built-in" dust storm generator.  Aside from making them extremely nasty to have to be right up close to - as you'd need to be in urban fighting in particular - that dust cloud would do two things; make an excellent target marker for the bad guys and; obscure the vehicles own target acquistion systems.  Thus they'd make it damn near impossible for friendly troops to operate near them, be like waving a huge flag at the enemy whenever they moved around, and be left blind to the enemy as the operated.  None of that leads to long life on the battlefield.

All that aside, the model still looks damn cool!  A lot better than the "Atomic Powered Hovertank" I made back in the day.

Madoc