Reply With QuoteJesus h christ!
I would love to hear what that sounded like, dayum
88 PPSh blasting away at the same time under your @ss
Fire Hedgehog.
History of the prototype:
In 1944 Chief weaponer of Tupolev - Nadashkevich and lead engineer Saveliev suggested the use of G.S.Shpagin sub machine guns for the attacks on enemy infantry columns. For this purpose they have designed a platform on which they've secured 88 PPSh machine guns (11 rows of 8 barrels each).
The whole system was called "PPSh battery." Each machine gun had a cartridge with 71 rounds of 7.62 mm. In firing position the battery was firmly fixed in the bomb bay of Tu-2C. When attacking the pilot opened the doors of the bomb bay and with a special sight led the barrage on the enemy.
To recharge the PPSh platform was extracted down on the ropes.
The decision to install such systems on the two Tu-2C was taken at a meeting with Chief Marshal of Aviation Novikov in October 10, 1944
Ten days later, Major General Tupolev contacted the chief engineer of the Red Army Air Force Colonel-General of A.K.Repin with a request to order the allocation of 180 units of PPSh model of 1941 sub machine gun to factory #156 with all the cartridges and 15,000 rounds of ammunition for them.
In early February 1946 the "PPSh battery", which received the informal name of "Fire Hedgehog", was flight-tested at the site. They found it highly effective, however, a powerful barrage of fire was short-timed, and the need to return to base to recharge the machine nullified its advantages. As a result, they recognized the use of small cluster bombs more appropriate to destroy enemy personnel.
Jesus h christ!
I would love to hear what that sounded like, dayum
88 PPSh blasting away at the same time under your @ss
No sh*t?they recognized the use of small cluster bombs more appropriate to destroy enemy personnel.
Completely useless system.
Experimentation is the key to innovation.Originally Posted by boone
Besides, maybe they had a surplus of these machine guns and were just looking to see what it would be like. At any rate, two years to make a prototype? Hardly sounds like it was super high priority.
Granted. Although the amount of armorers required to keep a setup like this running would have taxed even the Soviets.Experimentation is the key to innovation.
Admit it, you wish there was a video of it being tested
I was expecting Ron Jeremy lighting a fart but this is epic too.
I was expecting some snuff video of a Hedgehog on fire or something like that.
Everything went better than expected
This is the stuff of supervillainy.
I was expecting hedgehog ASW mortar systemI was expecting some snuff video of a Hedgehog on fire or something like that.
Everything went better than expected
so thats 88 PPsh 41, firing at a theoretical cyclic rate of 900 rds\min. so
900/60=15 rds\sec
15*88=1320 rds\sec area saturation, for a sustained burst of 5 seconds, and a total max theoretical ammunition expenditure of 71*88=6284 rnds in 5 seconds.
Probably quite impressive, churning up the ground like DPICM etc, but with a max sustainable duration of 5 secends, as it notes, not practical. Awesome though
Anyone capable of doing an estimate of the beaten zone it would create when factoring in area it covers vs. distance traveled at ground attack speed and altitude? I suspect there was a fine line between successfull saturation of formations, and churning up general geography.
Mounting guns for ground attack on aircraft has been successfull though, the basic concept has evolved into the AC130. [EDIT] that is, other than conventional forward-facing armament for conventional strafing runs
I'd not want to wander underneath, though.
Thanks for posting Stasi.
particularly not after its been used and the plane has landed. 6284 empties being tossed around in that bomb bay, with open bolt subguns, using drum mags. The chance of a jam having occured in at least one gun, a jam that just might jar loose at the most inopportune moment imaginable. Or on take-off, with 88 c.ocked open bolt subguns, with a russian aircraft rattling down some dodgy runway bumping shyte around.
As impressive as it sort of sounds, and spectacular as it probably was, a true Health and Safety nightmare
Posting Permissions
