[Vehicles] Gunpowder Engines and Stirling Engines

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Gurps HT does not use the terms interchangeably. In fact they are 2 separate lines (and even 2 separate TLs) on the explosives table on p.183.

I believe the explosive mixing you describe is more characteristic of what HT names "thermobarics". The experimental FAE bombs used by the USAF in vietnam (thus making them TL7) first released pressurized ethylene oxide gas and then igniting it when it was supposed to have achieved an optimum stochiometric ratio.

To my knowledge these weapons proved to be finicky about detonating as is the case with accidentally occurring fuel air explosions seen in grain siols, coal bunkers and other places.

The more modern thermobarics as seen in the MOAB don't seem to be finicky and I think most of the energy comes from powdered aluminum though I could see the easier to ignite magnesium being used in the detonator.

Black powder has three lines and three different tech levels. There's no descriptive section for thermobarics, and the section for FAE seems a bit confused: one sentence it's describing a proposed WWII coal dust warhead as an FAE, the next it's asserting that the theory specifies a "volatile mixture of pressurized fuels" (emphasis mine).

I don't use GURPS High Tech as my primary source for explosive terminology, so I'm not terribly concerned by that.