Frangible fly through diaphragm for missile launch canister

A frangible fly through diaphragm assembly for missile launcher tube closures, comprising:

• a. a first fabric layer forming a first ply;
• b. a second fabric layer forming a second ply;
• c. said first and second plies each being operable to tear easily along paths in two directions and to resist tearing in all other directions;
• d. said first ply having score lines in a first geometric pattern;
• e. said second ply having score lines in a second geometric pattern;
• f. said first ply and said second ply being impregnated with an adhesive and bonded together to form a diaphragm unit with the score lines of said first ply being aligned with the direction of the tear paths of said second ply, and score lines of said second ply being aligned with the directions of the tear paths of said first ply;
• g. said diaphragm unit being operable to resist a large uniformly distributed pressure load and fail under a lower concentrated central loading by a missile nose cone;
• the tearing of said diaphragm unit being controlled by the arrangement of said first and second plies wherein the score pattern of one ply aligned with the tear direction of the adjacent ply forms a geometric tear pattern for said diaphragm unit which allows for minimum drag force on a missile as it is launched.