Raytheon Company

General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, Inc.

Kevin R Greenwood

James D Streeter

Chris Eugene Geswender

Jeremy C Danforth

Rudolph Adolph Eisentraut

Mark A Scott

Stephen E Bennett

Douglas J Eliason

Juan A Perez

Mark L Bouchard

Timothy A Yoder

Shawn A Miller

Purna Gogineni

Brian K McDermott

Some embodiments pertain to a projectile that includes a casing and a sensor that is wrapped around the casing. As an example, the sensor may be wrapped around a longitudinal axis of the casing. The sensor obtains environmental data that the projectile is exposed to when the projectile is inside a cannon tube. As an example, the sensor may obtain pressure data that the projectile is exposed to during launch of the projectile when the projectile is inside the cannon tube. The sensor may include a plurality of segments that at least partially surround the casing. In some embodiments, the segments may be separated from the casing due to pressure that the projectile is exposed to during launch.

Projectile that includes a sensor to obtain environmental data during launch from a cannon

A deployable fairing is driven off of high-pressure gun gases to reduce aerodynamic drag and extend the range of the artillery shell. An artillery shell is provided with a fabric fairing and a piston attached thereto in a rear section of the shell in a stowed state and a chamber. During launch high-pressure gun gasses are captured and stored in the chamber. Once the shell clears the end of the artillery tube, the pressure aft of the shell drops from the high pressure inside the tube to atmospheric pressure outside the tube. The high pressure gun gasses stored in the chamber act over the top surface of the piston to drive the piston aft against the much lower pressure behind the projectile to deploy the fabric fairing attached thereto to reduce the base area of the projectile creating or extending the boat-tail of the shell, hence reduce aerodynamic drag. The aft driven piston engages a locking mechanism that locks the piston in a deployed position.

Deployable fairing and method for reducing aerodynamic drag on a gun-launched artillery shell

A projectile may include a base drag reduction fairing preform adapted to be plastically deformed into a base drag reduction fairing after the projectile is launched from a gun barrel.

Base drag reduction fairing

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

A projectile ( ) with extensible fins ( ) is designed to be lightweight by removing material unnecessary to structural strength and filling the resulting voids with a non-metallic filler material ( ). Although particularly suited where the extensible fins ( ) are mounted behind the obturator ( ) and that are therefore subjected to turbulent, destructive shock waves when the projectile is accelerated down the gun barrel, the method and apparatus can be used elsewhere as well. The filler material ( ) may be high temperature grease, an epoxy, a silicone or other similar materials. The filler material ( ) may be designed to fall away as soon as the projectile ( ) exits the gun barrel, or it may be permanently adhered to the material of the projectile. The filler may be surrounded by a frangible boot ( &prime;) to protect the filler during storage, shipment and loading into the gun.

Boot mechanism for complex projectile base survival

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Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Kevin R Greenwood