Young Writers Society

Two questions.

1. How is the machine gun used on a military helicopter? Is there some kind of lever with a trigger? Is it activated via a button? How is it aimed?

2. If a rocket-propelled grenade collided with a bullet in mid-air, would it explode?

Hi, Merlin.

1. This answer is heavily dependent on the type of helicopter you end up using, and its nation of origin. Helicopters with two crew members (pilot and gunner) usually have a remote-aimed machine gun of some sort, while single crew helicopters (pilot acts as gunner as well), will have a fixed-aiming machine gun that fire straight ahead. The Apache helicopter, for example, uses a remotely aimed 30mm chain gun mounted under the nose that's aimed by a gunner, who sits behind the pilot. I've attached a picture below.

2. Short answer; yes it probably would, but with a caveat. An RPG is detonated by a primer in the nose of the grenade, which on impact causes a spark and detonates the payload. You would need to hit the primer head-on with a bullet *after* the RPG had been fired. See THIS video and fast forward to 1:53 or so for a good example what I'm talking about. Once you watch it, you'll how ridiculous it looks. It would be pretty impossible for a normal human being to pull off.

Hope this helped, let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

--D