Hughes Aircraft Company

Texas Instruments Corporation

Patrick A Whipps

George W LeCompte

Kenneth K Colson

Charles B Muse

Jack R Markle

An infrared tracker for tracking a carrier in clutter comprises a pyrotechnically heated emitter, a beam concentrator, and a blanking means all of which are mounted on the carrier, and a command link, a thermal detector, a display signal storage means, a display, and a comparator all of which are located remotely to the carrier, said command link operative to provide an emitter start-up signal and a blanking command signal, said emitter and blanking means operative in response to the command signals sent to the carrier when there is clutter present that might be confused with the carrier, respectively, to actuate the emitter and blanking means, said display storage means operative to store a first video frame of the carrier while the emitter is blanked out, and said comparator for ocmparing the first video frame without the emitter to a subsequent video frame including the emitter to distinguish between the clutter is being substantially canceled.

Carrier tracking system

A compacted mixture of heat-generating powders including about 1 to 20 weight percent of silicon results in improved heat transfer to unreacted components or to the ambient during condensed state exothermic reaction to form intermetallic products. Gettering of expanding gases from impurities and incomplete compaction is also provided by the silicon addition, thereby increasing overall heat conductivity of the compact and further improving the heat transfer rate from the reacted region.

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Palmdale, CA, United States of America

Patrick A Whipps