Home > Pneumatic weapon

means of air pressure, similar in principle to the operation of pneumatic tube delivery systems. The term comes from a Greek word for "wind" or "breath" (πνευμα).

1 Comparison with Firearms

In theory, pneumatic weapons have certain advantages over traditional firearms:

• The ammunition can be much simpler (and thus more compact and lighter for the same payload), because there is no need for a propellant or casing; the entire round becomes the projectile.
• Since no propellant is fired, there is no chemical residue to accumulate in the barrel or chamber.
• Because there is no casing to eject, it is theoretically possible to have a higher rate of repeat fire.
• The barrel is not heated to nearly the same extent as with a firearm.

In practice, pneumatic weapons are not as well-developed as traditional firearms and have a number of practical deficiencies:

• The weapon itself has to supply or be supplied with a source of very high air pressure, such as a compressor, which adds substantial complexity and weight to the weapon.
• The action, or the mechanism by which subsequent rounds are automatically reloaded, must also be powered by the air pressure; many modern firearms re-use the energy from the propellant to accomplish this (see Maxim gun), further reducing the amount of work the weapon itself has to do.

2 Pneumatic Weapons in the Toy Industry

The low projectile speed requirement of a toy weapon greatly reduces the amount of air pressure needed; combined with the importance of safety in the toy industry, this has lead to widespread adoption of pneumatic firing mechnisms in toy weapons, where a propellant reaction is not appropriate (although other technologies, such as rubber bands, can be used).

The toy industry has produced a number of pneumatic toy weapons, which fire small, lightweight (often plastic and frequently hollow) projectiles at relatively low speeds. The Airsoft pistol is a popular toy that operates this way.