Helical railgun

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Helical railguns are multi-turn railguns that reduce rail and brush current by a factor equal to the number of turns. Two rails are surrounded by a helical barrel and the projectile or re-useable carrier is also helical. The projectile is energized continuously by two brushes sliding along the rails, and two or more additional brushes on the projectile serve to energize and commute several windings of the helical barrel direction in front of and/or behind the projectile. The helical railgun is a cross between a railgun and a mass driver.

Kolm, H. et al. (1980). "Electromagnetic Guns, Launchers, and Reaction Engines". Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A helical railgun was built at MIT in 1980 and was powered by several banks of, for the time, large capacitors (circa 4 farads). It was about 3 meters long, consisting of 2 meters of accelerating coil and 1 meter of decelerating coil. It was able to launch a glider or projectile about 500 meters.