Australian inventor's gun fires 1 million rounds a minute
Handgun has unique safety feature
June 28, 1997
Web posted at: 10:27 p.m. EDT (0227 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Australian Mike O'Dwyer once invented a
pair of running shoes that pumps air through them to cool a
runner's feet.
That idea hasn't received the kind of reception he'd hoped,
but O'Dwyer has another invention that has caused the U.S.
government to sit up and take notice.
It's a gun called Metal Storm that fires a million rounds a
minute, thousands of times faster than traditional weapons.
The gun can be configured as a large weapon that could be
carried by jet fighters and helicopters, but it also works on
a smaller scale as a handgun.
The gun has no moving parts -- just an electronic control
pad. When mounted on a tripod, a heavy-duty version of the
gun has a series of small holes at one end and looks like a
boxy, old-fashioned movie camera.
"Once we can fire it electrically," O'Dwyer says, "we make
the move from, if you like, 19th century mechanical guns to
21st century electronic guns, and all that goes with that."
"All that goes with that," of course, has largely to do with
military applications. Experts say a practical military
version of O'Dwyer's gun is years away, but its possibilities
are tantalizing.
Gun could be programmed with access code
The Air Force's AC-130 gunship carries Gatling guns that can
perforate an entire football field in minutes. A gunship
equipped with O'Dwyer's guns could do the job in seconds.
As a handgun, it has the angular look of a .45-caliber
automatic with one significant difference. Rather than one
barrel there are four -- top, bottom and on either side.
It also has a safety feature that might be appealing in some
quarters: it can be programmed to operate only with a
personal identification number. The owner could fire the gun;
others -- a child or a thief, for example -- could not.
If it proves to be viable for the military, Metal Storm could
be a devastating weapon. O'Dwyer is well aware of that, of
course, but he prefers to discuss its more benign uses.
"We can even put them on a helicopter and fly over a given
area, and we can 'pattern' an area and effectively clear it
of land mines," he says.
O'Dwyer has been demonstrating his gun to the U.S. military
and says there is some interest, but so far he has had no
takers.
Correspondent Louise Schiavone contributed to this report.
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