The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 04, 1983
Filed:
Aug. 14, 1980
Richard L Campbell, Medicine Hat, CA;
Clayton G Coffey, Medicine Hat, CA;
Abstract
A modular target apparatus is described, which is adapted to be towed behind a towing vehicle, typically an aircraft. The modular apparatus includes a fore body, an aft body, and a thrust bearing interconnecting said bodies. The thrust bearing allows predetermined amounts of relative movement between the two bodies. The fore body is tubular and normally houses a miss distance indicator (MDI) device. The aft body has an aerodynamically shaped front end, and includes a trailing skirt. These coact to provide dynamic stability when the target apparatus is being towed. The front end of the aft body is preferably configured to house augmentation means which provides enhancement of a predetermined signal. This is most preferably in the form of a Luneberg lens. At least one of the fore and aft bodies is sometimes a substantially empty tube-like element. The trailing skirt has guides thereon which cause the aft body to follow a predetermined path of motion. The guides are most preferably remotely actuatable guide vanes moveable to selected positions which will determine the path of motion followed.