General Dynamics Corporation

General Dynamics Corp., Pomona Division

Donald E Cole

John M Speicher

A system for proportionally navigating an airframe to a target wherein the airframe is maneuvered by an onboard flight control system including body rate gyros for detecting the movement of the airframe relative to a fixed reference. A target sensor is mounted for pivotal movement in the pitch and yaw planes on a gimbal assembly rigidly connected to the airframe body. Mechanisms, such as motor/tachometer/potentiometer assemblies, pivot the sensor in the pitch and yaw planes and provide signals representative of the angular rate of motion and angular position of the sensor. These signals, along with the sensor output, are utilized in a gimbal track loop for pivoting the sensor so that it tracks the target. The outputs of the body rate gyros are utilized to remove or decouple the airframe body motion from the gimbal track loop signal. The system eliminates the need for a costly and complex space stabilized gimballed sensor while offering improved performance over a system utilizing a pure body fixed sensor.

Body referenced gimballed sensor system

The autopilot incorporates a single linear accelerometer transducer and a single pitch rate sensor. The outputs of the accelerometer and pitch rate sensor are summed with the command signal in the control circuit. A servo is controlled by the modified control signal to vary the incidence of a single plane control system, in an intentionally rolling airframe.

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Covina, CA, United States of America

Donald E Cole