Bullets from a Jet Fighter Mach 3.2

[russ_watters]

Not true. Once out of the barrel, the bullet feels no pressure behind it. It is coasting, and only feels the pressure in front of it.

You misunderstand. I mean that before it leaves the gun, it will feel vastly more pressure behind it than it feels in front of it after leaving the gun. The point being that the acceleration will be much smaller and the possibility of deformation is much smaller.

Running some quick numbers, I'd say the peak acceleration of a rifle bullet would have to be on the order of 10,000 g's in order to make it up to, say, 2,000 fpm in the span of a 3' rifle barrel. A rifle bullet is essentially explosively accelerated while an airplane is using conventional engines (so the force of drag can't be quite so spectacular as people were initially thinking here).

 

[Cyrus]

Who cares about shooting a bullet?

Fire a friggin' missile!

http://roadrunnersinternationale.com/ursini.html

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/AIM-47.jpg