GSh-6-30 Gas Operated System

[Hasnnan]

I was very curious about MiG-27's GSh-6-30 that unlike Americans gatlling guns it is gas opearted and i want to know that how they use those hot gases to generate circular motion and achive 4000-6000 rpm after few searches i found out it work somehow like a pistion engine. All 6 barrels have two holes, and between these barrels there is a cylinder with a piston. Gases entering the cylinder through the hole push the piston, and the crank mechanism rotates the barrel assembly, converting the energy of longitudinal motion into circular motion.

GSh-6-30/23 gas engine. Blue is the gas piston. Red is the piston rod. Green is the crank mechanism. Dark Red is the cartridge belt feed star.

 

[capacitydecline]

I was very curious about MiG-27's GSh-6-30 that unlike Americans gatlling guns it is gas opearted and i want to know that how they use those hot gases to generate circular motion and achive 4000-6000 rpm after few searches i found out it work somehow like a pistion engine. All 6 barrels have two holes, and between these barrels there is a cylinder with a piston. Gases entering the cylinder through the hole push the piston, and the crank mechanism rotates the barrel assembly, converting the energy of longitudinal motion into circular motion. drift boss
View attachment 803596
GSh-6-30/23 gas engine. Blue is the gas piston. Red is the piston rod. Green is the crank mechanism. Dark Red is the cartridge belt feed star.

Interesting explanation. The piston-and-crank approach is quite clever, and the diagram makes the operating principle much easier to understand. I’d be curious to see more details about how the gas system handles such a high rate of fire.

 

[Ravinoff]

Interesting explanation. The piston-and-crank approach is quite clever, and the diagram makes the operating principle much easier to understand. I’d be curious to see more details about how the gas system handles such a high rate of fire.

Rather more violently than a GAU-8. When used on the MiG-27, the GSh-6-30 was known for having vibration and recoil so heavy it'd damage the aircraft it was mounted on. Broken landing lights, cracked reflector sights, highly accelerated fatigue on fuel tanks and airframes, at least three crash-landings due to jamming the front landing gear bay doors...and the two real highlights, an accidental jettisoning of the cockpit canopy (don't ask me how that happens) and an incident where the entire instrument panel fell off in flight.