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:
Dec. 18, 2001
Filed:
May. 22, 1998
Jeffrey L. Cipolla, Newport, RI (US);
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
A missile support and alignment assembly for use on a moving vehicle having a fixed missile launch tube mounted thereon. The assembly comprises a missile support assembly including (i) a loading tray for supporting a missile, (ii) a storage structure for supporting the loading tray, and (iii) mounts resiliently connecting the storage structure to the vehicle. The missile support and alignment assembly further comprises an alignment assembly including (i) indicator means on the launch tube, (ii) a sensor on the tray for reading a position of the indicator means, the sensor being adapted to send a signal indicative of position of the tray, and thereby a missile on the tray, relative to the indicator means, and thereby the launch tube, (iii) a control device adapted to receive the sensor signals and compute movement of the tray necessary to align the missile with the launch tube, the control device being adapted to send corrective signals, and (iv) alignment motors mounted on the storage structure for receiving the control device signals and for moving the tray relative to the launch tube to bring the missile in the tray into alignment with the launch tube.