how do fighter planes, or jets' onboard cannon m-gun bullets travel faster than the plane?

Question

some jets can apparantly fly close to 2000 mph, and a hand gun bullet travels around 5 or six hundred... i know there good enough to be called a "cannon" but still...

Answer 1

Dogfights usually occur at subsonic speeds. At high mach, it takes several miles to turn a fighter, and agility is the key to dogfighting. Consider that the average fighter, say the F-15, weighs about 50,000 pounds. That's a lot of mass to be turning and twisting. Additionally, you lose speed in any maneuver, so you often find yourself on the hairy edge of a stall before you know it. Thank goodness for afterburners! The M-61 Vulcan which I used fired 20mm rounds, and the entire round, casing and all, was about 8 or 9 inches long, and close to 2 inches in diameter after the neck which sized down to 8 tenths of an inch for the 20 mm round, the part that actually came out the barrel of the cannon. These were fired at a rate of 6,000 rounds per minute and it sounded like a buzz saw when you fired. The people who told you the round was at zero velocity in relation to the aircraft were entirely correct. The muzzle velocity of the round is added to the speed of the aircraft, whatever it is.

Answer 2

At the point of firing, the relative velocity of the bullet is 500 or 600 mph. And to an object that doesnot belong to the gun-aircraft system, the bullet will be travelling at 2500 mph.

However, a few seconds later in this scenario, the aircraft is maintaining the speed while the bullet will slow down and if still in line, the plane can rear-end the bullet. As a matter of fact this has happened, there was atleast one aircraft that was destroyed (shot down) by its own munitions in this fashion (I think it was an F-4 Phantom on a dive).

Aircrafts cannons and guns fire with much higher muzzle velocities. And the cannons or guns are not fired when travelling at velocities like 2000 mph, because it would be impossible to pull the aircraft away from impacting the target due to the enormous G-forces that would be induced by such maneuvers.

Answer 3

Think about that for a second... if the airplane is going 2000 miles per hour, and the gun shoots at even 500 which would be more like 1000 but we will use 500 in the example... 500 is the speed when it is standing still... well when the gun is fired... the bullet already has the 2000 mph advantage and then the propellant in the gun makes it go 500 mph out of the barrel, however the barrel is already going 2000 miles per hour with the airplane so its a simple math problem... 2000+500=2500 > 2000... 2,000 mph is sort of unrealistic for the speed of any aircraft however...

Answer 4

Since the cannon shells or bullets that the fighter is carrying are already traveling at whatever speed the aircraft is, I would imagine this becomes their zero starting point when fired. In other words: if Nolan Ryan throws a fast-ball 100 mph from the mound, he would throw it 150 mph from the front of a train traveling at 50. I'm sure it's more complicated than that though, especially when you get into super-sonic realms and things like that.

Answer 5

Just because some can fly at 2000mph doesn't mean this is their normal flight speed. At that speed their controls are less responive and the planes agility is compromised. Most fly subsonic for a lot of the flight, especially if they were to get into a in a dog fight where manouvrablilty is key.

Do jets even have normal guns these days? If they do i doubt they use them very often.

Besides, speed is relative. The bullet is doing 0 mph relative to the plane so it would still fire at 600mph (so it's effective speed relative to someone on the ground be 2600mph).

Answer 6

Example:

You have a gun which fires bullets at 500 mph when you stand on the ground.

You have a plane that flies at 1000 mph.

When you fire your gun from the plane your bullet now travels 1500 mph.

Answer 7

The "cannon" on a jet fighter is a 20mm or a 30mm rather than a 9mm and it fires quite a bit faster than the jet is flying.
Also they do no use their cannons at supersonic speeds, they reserve those speeds for their missiles which travel at mach 3

Answer 8

Well they are not fireing 9mm or anything like that. I mean if you do the math a 30.06 can do almost Mach 2, and a .50 caliber can do that and more. The guns on aircraft are generally 20 or 30mm guns, way more punch, plus I dont think they go around fireing their guns at full after burner doing Mach 2+, but hey I could be wrong.

Answer 9

When you awaken in Denver adventure awaits you and with hotelbye could be the first step to this particular adventure. In Denver you can explore the significant, fortress-like Denver Art Museum. This memorial features a vast variety; collection that features: American Indian, African, European, Asian, and Oceanic, Spanish colonial and pre-Columbian works. The remodelled American Indian galleries are particularly outstanding, protecting a wide array of countries and tribes from the United States and Canada. That considerable selection has received a name for the duration of North America, with pieces that amount 2,000 decades of history. In that museum you may also find another gallery specialized in photography. The Denver Art Museum has captured the interest with its distinctive style, inspired by the peaks of the Rocky Mountains.

Answer 10

Fly Like An Eagle by Steve Miller Band