The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.

Edward Bergmann

Gregory A Kirkos

Donald C Fyler

Mark Drela

Richard T Martorana

Sean George

Brent Appleby

Jamie M Anderson

William W McFarland, Jr

Seth Kessler

Steven Jacobson

Simon Mark Spearing

Andrew Dineen

Brian London

A projectile is guided by employing heat, generated from the aerodynamic heating of a surface of the projectile while the projectile is in flight, to vaporize a material stored within the projectile. The resulting gas is used to guide the projectile.

Guidance control system for projectiles

A flyer assembly is adapted for launching with, transit in, and deployment from an artillery shell having a central void region extending along a ballistic shell axis. The flyer assembly includes a jettisonable shroud and a flyer. The shroud extends along a shroud axis, and is positionable within the central void region with the shroud axis substantially parallel to the shell axis. The flyer is adapted to withstand a launch acceleration force along a flyer axis when in a first state, and to effect aerodynamic flight when in a second state. When in the first state, the flyer is positionable within the shroud with the flyer axis parallel to the shroud axis and the shell axis. The flyer includes a body member disposed about the flyer axis, and a foldable wing assembly mounted to the body member. The wing assembly is configurable in a folded state characterized by a plurality of nested wing segments when the flyer is in the first state. The wing assembly is configurable in an unfolded state characterized by a substantially uninterrupted aerodynamic surface when the flyer is in the second state. The flyer assembly is adapted to be launched from a ballistic delivery system such as an artillery cannon, and can thus reach a target quickly, without expending system energy stored within the flyer. During launch, the flyer is coupled to the shroud so as to maintain a portion of the flyer in tension during an acceleration of the flyer along the flyer axis resulting from the launch. The flyer assembly is adapted to withstand the high g-load and high temperature environments of a cannon launch, and can tolerate a set-back g load of about 16,000 g.

Flyer assembly

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Hopkinton, MA, United States of America

Edward Bergmann