Fin Stabilised

[Mike Cecil]

I was in Atlanta Georgia earlier this week, and visited the superbly restored Cyclorama depicting the Battle of Atlanta during the US Civil War/War of Northern Aggression/War Between the States (you choose which name suits you!). Almost 400 feet long x 40 odd feet high, it is an impressive painting.

Associated with the Cyclorama is an excellent museum of Civil War objects, including a wide range of rifles and pistols with good, detailed captions, not the 'one liners' we so often see in museums these days. There is also a fine collection of ordnance and projectiles, including this rather interesting 'fin stabilised' experimental projectile manufactured by a Confederate armory. The caption states it was a winged projectile for increasing the range and accuracy of smooth-bore cannons. The wings were spring-loaded and extended upon the projectile leaving the bore.

Seems to be very much like the principles of the modern-day fin-stabilised anti-tank rounds. I say 'modern', but of course, the principle has been in Western use since at least the late 1950s, with the 106-mm RCL HEAT round, which had wings which extended once the round left the barrel.

Just though it was interesting that 'fin stabilisation' had been thought of as far back as the 1860s (at least).

Mike