Does the gattling gun fire 100 rounds a second?

Answer 1

The original Gatling gun (invented in 1861 but patented in 1862) was one of the most well known rapid-fire weapons to be used in the 1860s by the Union forces of the Civil War.

Although the first Gatling gun was capable of firing continuously, it required human power to crank it; as such it was not a true automatic weapon.

Some time later, Gatling-type weapons were invented that diverted a fraction of gas from the chamber to turn the barrels.

Later still, electric motors supplied external power. The new electric-powered Gatling gun had a theoretical rate of fire of 3,000 rounds per minute, roughly three times the rate of a typical modern, single-barreled machine gun. Gatling's electric-powered design received US Patent #502,185 on 07/25/1893. Despite Gatling's improvements, the Gatling gun fell into disuse after cheaper, lighter-weight, recoil and gas operated machine guns were invented.

The modern M61 Vulcan is a 20 mm hydraulically or pneumatically driven, six-barreled, air-cooled, electrically fired Gatling-style cannon with an extremely high rate of fire. Rate of fire:

6,000 rounds per minute (M61A1) (this is 100 rounds per second).

6,600 rounds per minute (M61A2) (this is 110 rounds per second).

On the 12/20/2007 episode of Future Weapons, they mentioned a Dillon Aero M134D Gatling Gun (USA), a 7.62 mm, multi-barrel minigun with a high rate of fire of over 3,000 rounds per minute (50 rounds per second).

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatling_gun

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M61_Vulcan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Weapons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minigun