Possible "Plasma" Weapon?

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Winston Blake
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Post by Winston Blake »

Adrian Laguna wrote:
kheegan wrote:They are known as flame-throwers.
Kind of, I don't think there is a single military flame-thrower that reaches temperatures high enough for the burning gas to be considered plasma. However, the BattleTech universe has realistic plasma weapons called flamers. Unfortunately it also has the standard shiny bolt type of plasma weapon.
I'd say that flamethrowers are very different to a realistic 'plasma torch' weapon. Flamethrowers aren't really throwing flame (which IIRC does have a (negligible) proportion of plasma in it), they're more like 'fuelthrowers' with the ignition source tossed along for the ride.

I don't think 'plasma weapons' even have a purpose as glorified flamethrowers, since they'd lack the range and persistence of conventional ones.
Robert Gilruth to Max Faget on the Apollo program: “Max, we’re going to go back there one day, and when we do, they’re going to find out how tough it is.”
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