Raytheon Company

Juan A Perez

Rudolph Adolph Eisentraut

Stephen D Haight

Daniel Chasman

Jeffrey H Koessler

Kevin R Greenwood

John Christopher Parine

Martin Allen Kebschull

Purnachandra R Gogineni

Mark L Bouchard

Purna Gogineni

A propulsion system, such as for use in a missile, includes a multinozzle grid having a pair of plates that are separably mechanically coupled together. When coupled together in a first configuration, the plates provide multiple nozzles in a first nozzle configuration (geometry). Separation of the plates, such as by separating an aft plate from a forward plate that remains with the missile, reconfigures the multinozzle grid to a second configuration that has nozzles in a second nozzle configuration (geometry). The nozzle configurations may be suitable for different types of propulsion mechanisms. The hybrid propulsion system utilizing the multinozzle grid may include a pair of pressurized gas sources, for example a solid rocket fuel and a combustion chamber for a ramjet.

Hybrid missile propulsion system with reconfigurable multinozzle grid

A missile has fins that rotate about a single axis to deploy from a stowed position to a deployed position. A foil longitudinal axis of each fin is angled relative to a shaft of the fin, such that a single-axis rotation of the shaft moves the foil from the stowed position to a deployed position. A coil spring may provide both torsion and compression forces to rotate the fin into the deployed position and lock it into place. Torsion rotates the shaft until it reaches a seat on a bushing that is around the shaft. Then compression forces from the spring engage a keyed protrusion on the shaft with a corresponding keyway in the bushing, locking the shaft in place. There may be an additional lock once the fin is deployed, such as a spring-loaded pin in the missile body that engages a depression in the shaft.

Single-axis fin deployment system

A winged vehicle includes an elongated fuselage, and a wing mechanism affixed to the fuselage. The wing mechanism has a wing-support-body track affixed to and extending lengthwise along the fuselage, a translating wing-support body engaged to and translatable along the wing-support-body track, and exactly two deployable cantilevered wings. Each deployable cantilevered wing has a wing pivot mounted to the translating wing-support body so that the deployable cantilevered wing is pivotable about the translating wing-support body. The two deployable cantilevered wings are each pivotable between a stowed position and a deployed position. An actuation mechanism is operable to controllably move the translating wing-support body along the wing-support-body track and to controllably move the two deployable cantilevered wings between the stowed position and the deployed position.

Winged vehicle with variable-sweep cantilevered wing mounted on a translating wing-support body

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Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Juan A Perez