As I was typing yesterdays blog, I thought to myself, "Oh yeah...I have an idea for another post."
Back in 1944 the Germans were attempting to create 20mm spin stabilized rockets. Whether or not Robert Mainhardt and Art Blehl new about this, they created a company that eventually made a handheld Gyrojet launcher. In 1965 they announced that their company had "perfected" the technology and was producing both pistols and carbines that fired 13 mm Gyrojets, each about 1.5 inches long. The mini-rockets didn't come out of the barrel going all that fast, but reached their maximum speed somewhere around 200 feet. At the muzzle, the rocket was traveling about one-quarter the speed of a 45 acp...less then 200 fps.
The Gyrojet concept was great, but the actuality of it left a little to be desired. The rocket had very little stopping power up to about 25 to 30 feet and was inaccurate. Some sources state you could actually put your finger over the end of the barrel and stop the rocket.
The pistol was also about 250 bucks, so quite expensive for its time. The gun, though, was very light, about half the weight of a 1911 Government model. This was due to the fact that the barrel for the weapon was thin and aluminum was used in many areas instead of steel. There was little need for a thick barrel since the pressures involved were far less then a standard pistol cartridge.
As I said, the concept was great. Many Sci-Fi games, books, and movies picked up the concept and ran with it.
