A needlegun, also known as a needler, flechette gun or fletcher, is a firearm that fires small fin-stabilized, metal darts. A needlegun, also known as a needler, flechette gun or fletcher, is a firearm that fires small fin-stabilized, metal darts. ... The word flechette is French and means dart (literally, little arrow). It is a projectile having the form of a small metal dart, usually steel, with a sharp-pointed tip and a tail with several vanes to stabilize it during flight. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

In reality

The first projectiles in early gun systems dating from the 14th century were typically hand wrought iron flechettes wrapped in a leather sabot. However, due to the expense and trouble of making these darts in a pre-industrialized society, they were soon replaced with the less accurate stone cannon ball. Modern leather-working tools Leather is a material created through the tanning of hides, pelts and skins of animals, primarily cows. ... An APFSDS separating from its spindle sabot Anti-tank flechette round with its sabot A sabot refers to a device named for a shoe used in a firearm or cannon to fire a projectile or bullet that is smaller than the bore diameter. ...

Flechettes again came into mass use in World War I, when they were dropped from airplanes in this war. More recently, several flechette weapon systems have been developed, but none appear to be in mass production. Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Franz...

Flechette ammunition encased in a sabot is available for the M-16, shotguns, and other weapons. M16 Type Assault rifle Nationality United States Era Vietnam, modern History Date of design 1957 Production period 1960 to present Service duration 1960 to present Operators NATO War service Vietnam War, Gulf War, 2003_invasion_of_Iraq Specifications Type Assault Rifle Calibre 5. ...

There are some makes of underwater firearms which fire a steel bolt a bit over 4 inches long (but without fins).

In fiction

This weapon is featured in numerous works of fiction, notably:

• Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius stories (after which it is also the title of a Hawkwind song)
• William Gibson's Neuromancer et seq.
• The BattleTech universe
• Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat stories
• The weapon named Reason in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash
• Terry Pratchett's Strata
• Marvel Comics' Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD
• Larry Niven's A Gift From Earth
• The Halo universe, as a Covenant alien weapon.
• Zachary Emami's The Needle Revolution

Theoretically, the advantages of a needlegun over other projectile weapons are its compact size, high rate of fire, and ultra-high muzzle velocity. A needlegun takes advantage of the principles of kinetic energy and conservation of momentum, allowing a low-recoil delivery system to inflict significant damage to a target. Recoil is governed by momentum, which is the product of velocity and mass. By conservation of momentum, the change in momentum of the gun must equal the change in momentum of the projectile. The needle projectile has a very small mass, so its large change in velocity does not result in much recoil (change in velocity of the gun itself) since the gun has a mass much larger than the mass of the needle. Damage inflicted is related to the kinetic energy imparted by the projectile, which is 1/2 the projectile's mass multiplied by its velocity squared. Since the needle has a very high velocity and a negligible mass, recoil is minimized at little cost to the kinetic energy of the projectile and its damage potential. The high rate of fire allows the user to fire many needles quickly with a minimal loss of accuracy due to recoil effects, giving the needlegun supposedly large damage potential and precision in combat. Michael John Moorcock (born December 18, 1939) is a prolific English writer primarily of science fiction and science fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels. ... Jerry Cornelius is a fictional secret agent and adventurer created by science fiction / fantasy author Michael Moorcock. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948, Conway, South Carolina) is an American-born science fiction author resident in Canada since 1968. ... Neuromancer by William Gibson is the most famous early cyberpunk novel and won the so-called science-fiction triple crown (the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award, and the Hugo Award) after being published in 1984. ... 20 Year Anniversary of BattleTech logo. ... At the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, August 2005 Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey, March 12, 1925 in Stamford, Connecticut) is an American science fiction author who has lived in many parts of the world including Mexico, England, Denmark and Italy. ... The Stainless Steel Rat refers to a fictional character and the series of novels involving the character. ... Reason is a fictional weapon system from the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. ... Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer, known primarily for his science fiction works in the postcyberpunk genre with a penchant for explorations of society, mathematics, currency, and the history of science. ... Snow Crash is a science fiction novel written by Neal Stephenson and published in 1992. ... Terence David John Pratchett OBE (born April 28, 1948, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England[1]) is an English fantasy author, best known for his Discworld series. ... Strata is a comic science fiction novel by Terry Pratchett. ... Marvel Comics is an American comic book line published by Marvel Entertainment, Inc. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Ultimate Nick Fury. ... Laurence van Cott Niven (born April 30, 1938) is a US science fiction author. ... A Gift From Earth is a science fiction novel by Larry Niven, first published in 1968 and set in his Known Space universe. ... The Halo universe is a fictional setting for the video games Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, the future games Halo 3 and Halo Wars, and the books listed on Halo (video game series). ... The Covenant is a religious imperial alliance of alien races from the Xbox video game franchise Halo. ... A projectile is any object sent through space by the application of a force. ... A guns muzzle velocity is the speed at which the projectile leaves the muzzle of the gun. ... Kinetic energy is the energy by virtue of the motion of an object. ... In classical mechanics, momentum (pl. ...

Most hypothetical needlegun designs are solid state, meaning that the delivery system has no moving parts other than the projectile itself. For instance, see coilgun and railgun. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A railgun is a form of gun that converts electrical energy—rather than the more conventional chemical energy from an explosive propellant—into projectile kinetic energy. ...

Computer games

A Nailgun and Super-Nailgun were prominently featured as weapons in Quake. They were the equivalent of machine-gun style weapons that were able to fire rapidly by holding down the trigger. Quake III: Revolution contains a nailgun, but it fires only a single barrage before pausing to recharge. Zombies attacking the player. ...

Fallout 2 included a Needler weapon, which shot poisoned darts. A Tiberium-based Flechette Gun was also usable in Command & Conquer: Renegade. Fallout 2 is a critically-acclaimed computer role-playing game published by Interplay in 1998. ... A deposit of the fictional Tiberium. ...

The Jedi Knight series features a weapon called the Golan Arms FC1 Flechette which fires metallic darts. This article or section should include material from Jedi Sentinel —The Jedi Code — Obi-Wan Kenobi The Jedi Knights are a fictional brotherhood and organization from the Star Wars series of films by George Lucas. ...

Bungie's Marathon Infinity featured the KKV-7 submachine gun, which fired 4mm flechettes from a 10mm cartridge and was usable underwater. Bungie Studios is a video game developer founded in 1991 under the name Bungie Software by two undergraduate students at the University of Chicago, Alex Seropian and Jason Jones. ... Marathon Infinity is the third and final game in the Marathon series of science fiction first-person shooter computer games from Bungie Software. ...

More recently, Halo also featured a weapon known as the "Needler". This iteration fires glasslike, explosive projectiles which automatically seek out a target along their initial trajectory. The projectiles may turn sharply when near a target, or when the projectiles strike a surface at an oblique angle. Master Chief emerges from smoke and rubble that litters an African plain in Halo 3. ...

Also, in Devil May Cry, the main character Dante has a weapon called a needle gun. It is the only weapon he can use underwater. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

The junker uses a 40mm high-explosive flechette gun as his main weapon in the kinetic novel Planetarian. A visual novel is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art. ... Title from the fantranslated version. ...

See also

• Flechette
• SCIMTR
• Steyr ACR