The electromagnetic theta gun and tubular projectiles

Unlike the better known rail gun, the theta gun applies the propelling force along the length of its projectile. This is shown to allow much greater acceleration of high fineness ratio projectiles for a given barrel pressure, allowing much shorter barrels for military applications. A computer code which simulates performance of the theta gun is described and experimental results from a few simple, low energy experiments show close agreement with code predictions. Trajectories and aerodynamic heating for three candidate military projectiles are calculated for vertical and horizontal atmospheric launches where initial velocity is as high as 5 km/s. The calculations indicate that in some cases a thin layer of heatshield (ablator) will be required to control projectile heating.