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The Evolution of Projectile Design

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The Story of the Gun

Part of the book series: Springer Praxis Books ((POPS))

Abstract

Projectiles (or bullets) come in all shapes and sizes. With small hand-held guns, the bullets tend to be manufactured from several materials and usually are solid.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I know that slow-burning seems an unusual term—particularly as propellants are known to expire in several 1000th of a second. However, it is a term that is commonly used to describe a ‘lazy’ propellant. That is, one that takes more time than the average to reach the ‘all-burnt’ position in the pressure—time curve.

  2. 2.

    That is to say, fins are employed to keep the projectile pointing in the trajectory of flight and therefore stabilize it.

  3. 3.

    Perspex is a plastic that has a hard and brittle appearance but like all polymers the mechanical properties are an order of magnitude less than that of tungsten carbide.

  4. 4.

    Most modern DU projectile materials are alloyed with a small (0.75%) amount of titanium to improve strength and corrosion resistance.

  5. 5.

    In Albert Speer’s 1969 memoirs, translated into English in 1970.

  6. 6.

    It is worth mentioning that some gun-launched HEAT rounds are ‘shape-stabilised’ and use a spigot that uses a small flange to invoke a rotating air pocket at the front of the projectile body. The length of the spigot and position of the flange are key to maintaining stability. Usefully, the spigot doubles as stand-off, the length of which is optimized for stability, not shaped charge penetration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Information Technology, UNSW Canberra, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Paul J. Hazell

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  1. Paul J. Hazell
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Correspondence to Paul J. Hazell .

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Hazell, P.J. (2021). The Evolution of Projectile Design. In: The Story of the Gun. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73652-1_7

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