Blazing Saddles: Guns In Space! Sleuths?

Mad Scientist wrote in newsXu_c.160$e%o1.144
@news04.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com:

*yawn"

Stop posting HTML in an ASCII newsgroup.

Blazing Saddles: Guns In Space!

When the movie Star Wars came out in 1977, remember how many jokes were
made about Luke and Han blazing away at Imperial fighters with the
ack-ack guns on the Millennium Falcon?

In the July 1998 issue of Spaceflight (the popular publication of the
British Interplanetary Society), there's a article1 about the military
version of the Soviet Salyut space station, which flew as Salyuts 3 and
5 between 1974 and 1977. (The name "Salyut" was applied to two entirely
different space station programs, one military and the other civilian,
which used completely different hardware built by different design
bureaux.2 The hardware flown in the Salyut 3 and 5 missions was
referred
to as Almaz (Diamond) within the Soviet space program.)

Virtually no information was available about the military Salyuts until
recently, when access was opened up to a full-scale training model at
the Moscow Aviation Institute. Well, guess what--Salyut 3 had a machine
gun. The station had a 23 mm rapid-fire cannon mounted on the outside,
along the long axis of the station "for defence against US space-based
inspectors/interceptors". Combat engagements would have been leisurely
by Star Wars or fighter jet standards, since the only way to aim the
cannon was to point the entire station at the target, using its
attitude
gyros. A periscope connected to a visor on the main control panel
allowed drawing a bead on the intended target.

Mo
http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/spaceguns/




--
"I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an
argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer
clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they
don't even invite me." -Dave Barry

Paul Lawler wrote:

Mad Scientist wrote in newsXu_c.160$e%o1.144
:

*yawn"


Sociopath; stop harassing me.



Stop posting HTML in an ASCII newsgroup.



Blazing Saddles: Guns In Space!

When the movie Star Wars came out in 1977, remember how many jokes were
made about Luke and Han blazing away at Imperial fighters with the
ack-ack guns on the Millennium Falcon?

In the July 1998 issue of Spaceflight (the popular publication of the
British Interplanetary Society), there's a article1 about the military
version of the Soviet Salyut space station, which flew as Salyuts 3 and
5 between 1974 and 1977. (The name "Salyut" was applied to two entirely
different space station programs, one military and the other civilian,
which used completely different hardware built by different design
bureaux.2 The hardware flown in the Salyut 3 and 5 missions was


referred


to as Almaz (Diamond) within the Soviet space program.)

Virtually no information was available about the military Salyuts until
recently, when access was opened up to a full-scale training model at
the Moscow Aviation Institute. Well, guess what--Salyut 3 had a machine
gun. The station had a 23 mm rapid-fire cannon mounted on the outside,
along the long axis of the station "for defence against US space-based
inspectors/interceptors". Combat engagements would have been leisurely
by Star Wars or fighter jet standards, since the only way to aim the
cannon was to point the entire station at the target, using its


attitude


gyros. A periscope connected to a visor on the main control panel
allowed drawing a bead on the intended target.

Mo
http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/spaceguns/









--
Usenet is filled with abusive and obsessive-compulsive-sociopathic personality disorder sufferers which makes it all the more easily ignored, dismissed and ridiculed.

"Mad Scientist" wrote in message
. rogers.com...


Paul Lawler wrote:

Mad Scientist wrote in newsXu_c.160$e%o1.144
:

*yawn"

Sociopath; stop harassing me.

Parrot, Only a kook would think you are being harrased.

Now be a polite little boy, and turn off your html in your posts.