HoverTank

[ysi_maniac]

I am very interested in Gauss gun, since I read about this coil tech applied to railways. IMO it would be a perfect weapon of unlimited power.
Do you know about essays or prototypes?
Why it has not been implemented yet?

Thanks.

[B777LR]

An advantage of hovertanks:

No need for heavy turning turrets, and armour on the rear of those. A hovertank would be able to turn just as fast and effectively. Could be the return of Sturm tanks!

IMHO, the ability to fire on the move require a proper turret.

Why does one need to fire on the move? 

[GTX]

An advantage of hovertanks:

No need for heavy turning turrets, and armour on the rear of those. A hovertank would be able to turn just as fast and effectively. Could be the return of Sturm tanks!

IMHO, the ability to fire on the move require a proper turret.

Why does one need to fire on the move? 

It's a useful thing - maybe you don't want to have to come to a complete stop every time you fire.

Regards,

Greg

[kitnut617]

Why does one need to fire on the move? 

If you have to stop everytime you shoot, you're a sitting target for anyone who's shooting back at you.  Any tank today which is a top ranked tank, are all capable of shooting while on the move.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

I remember something similar to your flying tank that was under testing and development by the Marines and Garret called the STAMP (Small Tactical Aerial Mobility Platform) back in the early 70's.  If that technology could have been developed further it might have been possible that somewhere along the way an armored version could have been developed. 
(From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_STAMP)

The Garrett STAMP (Small Tactical Aerial Mobility Platform) was a two person flying jeep prototype made by a division of Garrett Systems, the Airesearch Co. of Phoenix, for the United States Marine Corps STAMP program, in the early 1970s.

The prototype took off and manoeuvered by the means of a ducted turbine, much like the Harrier. Unlike the Harrier it had no wings and had to depend on the fan's thrust for lift at all times. This gave it an expected range of 30 miles at a speed of 75 mph. The power came from a Garrett TSE-231 turbine normally used to power helicopters. The turbine gave 1050 pounds of thrust by running at 6000 rpm. Two persons sat in a closed cockpit adapted from a small helicopter.

The prototype was successfully tested in tethered flight inside a hangar at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in California.

What really sucks is that there appears to be no images currently available on-line to show what the STAMP actually looked like.  I remember reading the original article and there were a couple of images included with it showing the STAMP at a distance and it was clear from the images that the helicopter used to create the STAMP was an OH-6 Cayuse with the boom and main rotor removed. 

After reading that article I remember trying to come up with my own interpretation of a STAMP that had some armor and weapons and concluded that it would be best to start with something like an M114, M113, or an FV432 and remove the tracks and road wheels.  The M113 and FV432 might have had just enough internal volume to accomodate something like the Rolls Royce Pegasus with the exhausts venting to either side of the vehicle into the area formerly occupied by the tracks.  The sides of the vehicle would shield the exhausts and there would be enough room inside for fuel and up to three occupants (pilot, co-pilot, and observer/ vehicle commander).  If further growth in the Pegasus was available, it might have been possible to see a small turret fitted and armed with a small caliber cannon and machine gun.  Other weapons options could have been multiple M40 106mm or Wombat 120mm recoiless rifles fitted to the sides of the vehicles in a stacked arrangement (two or three per side depending on size of vehicle).  It might have had a short range and limited loiter time but it could have been an excellent anti-armor weapon for a combat arms unit. 

[philp]

I am very interested in Gauss gun, since I read about this coil tech applied to railways. IMO it would be a perfect weapon of unlimited power.
Do you know about essays or prototypes?
Why it has not been implemented yet?

Thanks.

You can start looking here:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&pwst=1&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=gauss+gun&spell=1

[PanzerWulff]

I think the issue of survivability would be a problem, though - it would be very difficult to give such a vehicle sufficient armour to fully protect it. Maybe it would mount several active defence systems rather than lots of armour...?

I was thinking of some sort of composite laminated armor,say with a thin light metal outer layer and layers of Kevlar & ceramics similar to the mix used on the Stryker ICV.one layer could be made of the same materials as the heat shield tiles of the space shuttle I bet that material would give good protection from the jet of a HEAT warhead or even using slat armor again like the Stryker
"Panzer"

[ysi_maniac]

I remember something similar to your flying tank that was under testing and development by the Marines and Garret called the STAMP (Small Tactical Aerial Mobility Platform) back in the early 70's.  If that technology could have been developed further it might have been possible that somewhere along the way an armored version could have been developed. 
(From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_STAMP)

The Garrett STAMP (Small Tactical Aerial Mobility Platform) was a two person flying jeep prototype made by a division of Garrett Systems, the Airesearch Co. of Phoenix, for the United States Marine Corps STAMP program, in the early 1970s.

The prototype took off and manoeuvered by the means of a ducted turbine, much like the Harrier. Unlike the Harrier it had no wings and had to depend on the fan's thrust for lift at all times. This gave it an expected range of 30 miles at a speed of 75 mph. The power came from a Garrett TSE-231 turbine normally used to power helicopters. The turbine gave 1050 pounds of thrust by running at 6000 rpm. Two persons sat in a closed cockpit adapted from a small helicopter.

The prototype was successfully tested in tethered flight inside a hangar at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in California.

What really sucks is that there appears to be no images currently available on-line to show what the STAMP actually looked like.  I remember reading the original article and there were a couple of images included with it showing the STAMP at a distance and it was clear from the images that the helicopter used to create the STAMP was an OH-6 Cayuse with the boom and main rotor removed. 

After reading that article I remember trying to come up with my own interpretation of a STAMP that had some armor and weapons and concluded that it would be best to start with something like an M114, M113, or an FV432 and remove the tracks and road wheels.  The M113 and FV432 might have had just enough internal volume to accomodate something like the Rolls Royce Pegasus with the exhausts venting to either side of the vehicle into the area formerly occupied by the tracks.  The sides of the vehicle would shield the exhausts and there would be enough room inside for fuel and up to three occupants (pilot, co-pilot, and observer/ vehicle commander).  If further growth in the Pegasus was available, it might have been possible to see a small turret fitted and armed with a small caliber cannon and machine gun.  Other weapons options could have been multiple M40 106mm or Wombat 120mm recoiless rifles fitted to the sides of the vehicles in a stacked arrangement (two or three per side depending on size of vehicle).  It might have had a short range and limited loiter time but it could have been an excellent anti-armor weapon for a combat arms unit. 

Hi Jeffry, my concept, and probably panzerwulf's are much in the line you express here. 

This thread is reaching a high technical level IMO. So, I think it is time to ask moderators to move it to the '... by topic' group

[kitnut617]

I was thinking of some sort of composite laminated armor,say with a thin light metal outer layer and layers of Kevlar & ceramics similar to the mix used on the Stryker ICV.one layer could be made of the same materials as the heat shield tiles of the space shuttle I bet that material would give good protection from the jet of a HEAT warhead or even using slat armor again like the Stryker
"Panzer"

I remember when I took my then young son way back in the 80's, to a NASA display at the Calgary International Airport.  They had a full size mock-up of the Shuttle in a hanger there and all around was all types of displays related to space travel.  One particular demonstration was where a guy was showing how effective the tiles were in protecting the shuttle from heat.  He had one of the tiles used on the shuttle which was about 1-1/2" thick (38mm) and holding it with his bare hand, he then used a blow torch to heat the other side until it was almost white hot, you could feel the heat radiating off the tile even from 6 feet away, but he continued to hold the tile with his uncovered hand.  Pretty impressive I have to admit.

[Ed S]

I was thinking of some sort of composite laminated armor,say with a thin light metal outer layer and layers of Kevlar & ceramics similar to the mix used on the Stryker ICV.one layer could be made of the same materials as the heat shield tiles of the space shuttle I bet that material would give good protection from the jet of a HEAT warhead or even using slat armor again like the Stryker
"Panzer"

From what I understand of the ceramic tiles on the shuttle, that are somewhat fragile.  They are apparently sort of a ceramic foam and probably would not stand up to the abuses of being mounted on a armored vehicle.

Ed

[Weaver]

Galahad Hovertank as featured in the classic OGRE wargame.

http://www.sjgames.com/ogre/products/macrotures/

1. I don't think the big-scale resin kit in the article is still available.

2. If you don't know what the hell OGRE is, then follow the links......

[Mossie]

Weaver, if you like OGRE than you may want to track this build: http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,18549.0.html

Hovertanks, hmmm.  There are several emerging techologies that could replace the classic hovercraft as we know it.  Skirts made by generating gas plasmas are one way that could make hovercraft much more effeicent, as well as a variety of types electro-magnetic propulsion.

Recoil has been mentioned, but that's one problem your going to have to get around if designing a hovertank.  Current hovercraft offer little resistance to recoil, it's going to seriously slow or push your tank backwards.  Recoiless guns (as mentioned previously) would be the only real current technology available that you could use.  Directed energy weapons offer a future option, lasers, particle beams, plasma weapons.  If you're generating plasma for use in a skirt, you could also use this for the weapon.

[Weaver]

If you can build a hover tank.  I would be surprised if you couldn't build into the controls a feature to deal with recoil.  let the computer deal with it.

Thing is, how much control power does it have? If you fire a serious gun sideways, then whatever the computer decides to do, it will still have to apply the same amount of force in the opposite direction in order to keep the vehicle going straight.

Here's the IDEAL weapon for a hover tank, to complement it's missiles: http://www.rheinmetall-detec.de/index.php?fid=1506&lang=3&pdb=1

[ysi_maniac]

^^^^ I like this GUN 

[Weaver]

^^^^ I like this GUN 

Good innit? I particularly like the video that's knocking around of them firing it sideways from a mounting on the side of a Wiesel's turret.....