Sanders Associates Limited

Theodore J Nussdorfer

Ronald R Sinclair

John A Smith

George Sebestyen

John H Stewart

Timothy B Sands

Armand R Poirier

James B Kesseli

Burton D Figler

Don H Ross

An infrared target seeker for a spinning projectile which does not require any reticle motor or gimbals is provided by a solid unit including lenses, detectors and a reticle, which is etched on one of the lenses.

Infrared target seeker for spinning projectile

Control is provided to conventional gun-fired projectiles by substituting for the standard fuze thereof a device comprising a canard frame and a main housing, which threads into the fuze well of the projectile, with the canard frame being rotatable with respect to the main housing and having deflectable canards thereon for providing vernier correction on the trajectory to the projectile.

Canard control assembly for a projectile

A heating chamber for supplying heated air in a Brayton engine or gas turbine plant including a compressor and turbine. The heating chamber includes a solar energy receiver that receives solar energy, converts it to heat, and heats air from the compressor. To supply additional energy that may be required for the turbine, fuel is injected into the air stream and a catalyst downstream of the solar receiver reacts the fuel with the air to provide additional energy.

Brayton engine burner

Apparatus for minimizing thermal loss in a windowless, open cavity solar receiver due to airflow at the receiver aperture includes means for deflecting wind away from the cavity opening such that flow stream reattachment occurs away from the receiver aperture to provide a dead air zone at the cavity opening. This prevents turbulent-mixing airflow exchange between ambient air and heated air within the solar receiver. The wind deflector apparatus includes either a passive annular deflection foil at the receiver aperture, or an active device for producing an outwardly projected air jet at the receiver aperture.

Wind loss prevention for open cavity solar receivers

An efficient split cycle solar energy conversion system utilizes sensible heat storage to isolate a solar receiver loop from a Brayton cycle engine loop. In this system a sensible heat storage unit is first charged by the solar receiver, is then switched to the inlet to the Brayton cycle turbine where it is discharged, and finally may be utilized as a high temperature, high effectiveness recuperator to recapture waste heat from the Brayton cycle turbine. With high effectiveness sensible heat storage recuperation, the Brayton cycle engine runs at extremely high efficiency. Moreover, since these storage devices can be run efficiently at low gas velocity, and since recuperated Brayton cycle engines become very efficient at extremely low pressure ratios, an overall thermal/electric conversion efficiency in excess of 60% can be obtained. Further, the Brayton cycle engine can be used with a sensible heat storage unit charged from a fuel fired source utilizing so-called 'dirty' fuels, because fuel by-products which would ordinarily corrode the turbine blades of the Brayton cycle engine are either not picked up in the low velocity discharge of the storage unit or impinge on the blades at velocities low enough so that no damage is done to the blades.

Energy conversion system

A radiation sensor including an inner detector surrounded by an array of outer detectors is employed in radiation tracking apparatus which is capable of tracking a true target in a field of targets which may include a decoy or false target. The apparatus includes a color filter arrangement and a reticle which cooperates to produce pulses of long and short wavelength filtered infrared radiation upon the outer detectors of the sensor. The apparatus includes means for processing the signals produced by the outer and inner detector elements so as to discriminate between true and false targets and cause the tracking apparatus to track a true target.

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Lexington, MA, United States of America

Theodore J Nussdorfer