US Government As Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Other

William F Donovan

Bruce P Burns

Arthur D Coates

LeRoy Stansbury, Jr

John A Rakaczky

Wayman E Scott

Edward M Schmidt

Thomas R Jeter

Michael Nusca

An improvement to existing embedded armor found in tank systems that seeks to degrade the performance of kinetic energy projectiles, traveling at speeds ranging from high to supersonic is provided. Improvements are achieved by employing a mechanical means to hold the individual plates of an armor system in standby position while allowing them to pivot about a fixed axis of rotation when contacted by an incoming projectile. A kinetic energy projectile fired at a tank usually begins penetration of primary defenses by cutting through a tipping screen and then the tank hull. When the projectile reaches and begins penetration of the embedded armor arrangement, it rotates the lead armor plate about its pivot axis and thereby travels through and out of the armor plate on an altered trajectory. The dimished and dampened projectile will encounter further deviation from its original trajectory, deterioration in size, and reduction of momentum as it reaches other spaced pivoting plates having a sequential pattern of vertically offset axes of rotation. These features ultimately add to the safety and security of personnel and stored ammunition within the tank.

Armor for defeating kinetic energy projectiles

A high velocity aerodynamic projectile having a central body with a forward nd, a rearward end and a longitudinal axis, the forward end of the body has a pedestal coaxially extending outward from the body. The projectile has aft stabilizing fins or a flare rigidly affixed at its rearward end and a forward stablizing means pivotably attached to the pedestal of the central body. The forward stabilizing means consists of a self-aligning projectile nose having its rearward end separated from the forward end of the projectile's central body so as to allow the self-aligning projectile nose to pivot and align with the oncoming air stream.

Aerodynamically compliant projectile nose

A projectile comprises a nose ogive tapering outwardly to a cylindrical or onical body portion of caliber diameter. A reversely tapering stabilizer is connected to the rear of the body portion and is terminated at a tail stabilizer which tapers outwardly in the same direction as the nose ogive. The largest diameter of the tail stabilizer is at most equal to and preferably less than the caliber. Aerodynamic stabilization is thus achieved without the use of a sabot or complex stabilizer fin deployment mechanisms.

Projectile stabilizer

An ammunition round for an artillery gun comprises, as an armor piercing nd, an outer tubular disposable sabot and an inner projectile which are joined by interlocking means to join them until exiting from the gun muzzle and separates them in ballistic flight. The interlocking means comprises left-handed threads and right-handed threads; both directions of threads being on both the inner wall of the sabot and the outer wall of the projectile. In one embodiment the two directions of threads are on axially tandem sections and in another embodiment they are on the same section, to form a herringbone pattern with raised diamond-shaped protrusions.

Armor piercing ammunition having interlocking means

The invention relates to a hermetically sealed ballistic projectile having nose, material containing shell and a piston. The nose has a rearwardly increased diameter and a rearward region of decreased diameter, the shell has a forward most region of mating diameter with the rearward region of the nose and is in fixed but frangible contact with the nose. The piston is in hermetic sealed engagement with the inner surface of the forward region of the shell with its forward surface proximate the rearward surface of the nose. Material is used to fill the interior space of the shell between the piston and the rearward inner surface of the shell. The materials can be of a liquid, semi-liquid, slurry or solid consistency and are explosive, hypergolic, incendiary or otherwise reactive or inert, and contained in a single or a plurality of separate component containing compartments.

Ballistic projectile

A wedge-shaped seal for sealing against leakage of gun gases past a projele in the bore of a gun barrel includes a wedge-shaped tip having rearward angled forward and rear surfaces which is preloaded to bear the tip against the projectile body. A wedge-shaped region between the lip and the projectile body is partly collapsed by the pressure of gun gases on the rear surface of the lip to improve the seal. A similar seal may be provided with the bore of the gun barrel.

Projectile seal

A primer device has a coupling device for efficiently dispersing the ignin products from a primary propellant into a main charge. The coupling device has a housing with a central chamber. This chamber has an inlet and outlet port. The housing and its inlet port are sealed over a cavity containing a primary propellant. A valve device is mounted at the inlet port for initially sealing combustion gasses from the primary propellant within the cavity. This initial interval during which the cavity is sealed, fosters thorough burning of the primary propellant. When combustion causes pressure sufficient to open the valve device, combustion products enter the central chamber of the housing. These combustion products bear upon a frangible seal, which is mounted at the outlet port of the housing. The frangible seal ruptures at a predetermined and repeatable pressure. As a result, the combustion gasses from the primary propellant are expelled from the housing at a high pressure and at a time when a great percentage of the primary propellant has been burned. As a result an energetic flame exits from the housing, efficiently and thoroughly igniting the main charge.

Primer device

Spin is imparted to a projectile within a smooth-bore barrel through the of a projectile-sabot system. The sabot, which substantially encloses the projectile, has a forward flange section which includes a plurality of nozzles which cause the sabot to operate as a centrifugal turbine. The sabot has grooves or slots on interior and/or exterior surfaces which fracture under the centrifugal forces which exist when the projectile-sabot system exits the smooth-bore barrel, thereby permitting the sabot to separate from the projectile after the desired spin has been imparted to the projectile.

Kinetic sabot system

A pressure seal for sealing a vessel against passage of fluid from a high essure containing cavity is disclosed to include a barrier means slidably disposed within the cavity having a seal body and a seal piston reciprocably received within the seal body. The seal piston and seal body cooperate to define a fluid containing chamber for accommodating compressible fluid to assist in the control of forces for generating sealing. The seal means include a primary seal for relatively low pressures and a metal-to-metal seal wherein the outer surface of at least a portion of the seal body is deflected outwardly against the inner surface of the cavity by displacement of the seal piston inwardly of the seal body such as to initially provide a secondary seal against passage of fluid outwardly of the cavity and thereafter providing sealing which increases in intensity in response to continuous build-up of pressure within the cavity.

High pressure lip seal

A spin stabilized projectile is arranged to have variable flight stability. he projectile has a casing with a cavity that contains a given mass of fluid. The cavity is shaped to provide a balanced flow of fluid with respect to the axis of spin as the projectile is trajected. This balanced flow alters the flight stability of the projectile.

Projectile

A gun having a piston accelerated by a first charge and a projectile moun to and accelerated relative to the piston by a powder charge on said piston ignited by a firing pin pneumatically actuated by the gases of the first charge. The gases of the first charge travel a convuluted path of decreasing cross-section.

Growing community of inventors

Aberdeen, MD, United States of America

William F Donovan