Aeronutronic Ford Corporation

Carl H Smith

Eric Durand

Louis G Walters

1. A missile guidance system for continuously guiding a missile along a line of sight between a vehicle and a target comprising, Tracker means which is located solely on said vehicle, includes a radiation-sensitive element, and is responsive to the impingement of radiant energy on said element to generate signals indicative of the direction of impingement of said radiant energy on said element, relative to the orientation of said element, A source of radiant energy, positioned on said missile, Means, located solely on said vehicle and operable by a human operator, for locating said element of said tracker means in an orientation and position which bears a fixed spatial relationship to said line of sight, Said tracker means, when said element is so oriented and positioned and impinged by radiant energy from said source, being adapted to generate yaw signals indictive of the deviation in azimuth of said source with respect to said line of sight and being also adapted to generate pitch signals indicative of the deviation in elevation of said source with respect to said line of sight, Said source and said tracker means comprising a first communications link between said missile and said vehicle, A guidance and control computer in said vehicle having a yaw channel responsive to said vehicle tracker yaw signals and having a pitch channel responsive to said vehicle tracker pitch signals, Each of said yaw and pitch channels having an equalizer network responsive to the respective yaw and pitch signals from said vehicle tracker to equalize said yaw and pitch signals, Each of said yaw and pitch channels having means for limiting said equalized signal in each said channel, A computer programmer for generating a gain compensating signal proportional to the missile flight time, and a line of sight compensating signal proportional to target motion at right angles, Each of said yaw and pitch channels having a summation circuit for adding said limited equalized signals, said gain compensating signal, and said line of sight compensating signal to provide yaw and pitch command signals, A second communication link between said missile and said vehicle including a transmitter in said vehicle for transmitting said yaw and pitch command signals, and a receiver in said missile for receiving said command signals, And flight control means in said missile for guiding said missile in response to said command signals received by said receiver.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Ana, CA, United States of America

Carl H Smith