Airsoft minigun is an airsoft gun which is created as a 1:1 scale replica of the real multi barrel machine gun.
real minigun in action
Minigun has a very high rate of fire, which usually can go on 1000-2000 rounds per minute.
It employs the Gatling-gun principle, in which six revolving barrels rotate around the firing axis. This arrangement allows the individual barrels to cool between shots.
The Chain Gun's (other name for minigun) action is driven by an electric motor, unlike the hand-crank system of the Mulcher. This feeds ammunition in and rotates the firing mechanism. As it rotates, the barrels close into the bolt for firing, then withdraw to extract the spent cartridge case and feed in a fresh round. The entire process happens very quickly; when the Chain Gun is fired, the sounds of the individual shots blur into a continuous, rippling roar.
Much of the Chain Gun's length is in its barrels; the actual firing mechanism is quite compact for such a powerful weapon. The weapon only has rudimentary iron sights; the gunner is expected to observe the stream of fire's fall and adjust their aim accordingly. To keep up with the Chain Gun's voracious appetite for ammunition, It is normally fed from enormous ammunition boxes, with ammo fed to the weapon via a flexible metal chute.
Because of the Gun's size and mass, it is far too big to be moved about by any one soldier. Instead, it is normally seen as a vehicular or aircraft weapon - it is particularly well-suited for being a helicopter door gun, where its high rate of fire makes up for the relative lack of accuracy that comes from using a flying helicopter as a firing platform. It is also sometimes seen mounted on a tripod or base for use as a static defense weapon.
The term Minigun has been populary refered to any externally powered Gatling gun of rifle caliber
Specifically, a mini gun refers to a single weapon which originally manufactured by GE (General Electric).
The use of mini in the name is as comparison to designs that use a similar firing mechanism but larger shells, such as GE's popular M61 Vulcan
if you're interested more about the history of gatling gun, M134 minigun aka the chain gun, you can read more about them here: history of Minigun
Airsoft Minigun
Today, there are many airsoftgun that was created based on popular guns and rifles, say the popular desert eagle, MPK5, sniper rifle, shotgun and that includes the minigun.
Since an airsoft minigun is large in size and quite complicated to be produced as mass products, there's not many company can produces this tipe of airsoft gun. At least one that has a detail as good as the original's....
One of the least company that produces airsoft gun is Echo 1.
Echo 1 airsoft minigun is a new generation of minigun. It's a marvellous minigun that surprise the airsoftgun community with it's launched several months ago.
The spec sheet released is quite an impressive of numbers, and it tell that it's aint for feint-hearted.
You can check out more about Echo1 M134 Airsoft minigun here.