Projectile
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army
InventorAbraham Flatau
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A projectile is adapted to be launched from a barrel. The projectile incls a tubular housing and a structural member. The tubular housing has a forward inlet throat and aft nozzle. An annular layer of solid fuel combustible material is mounted within the housing between the inlet throat and nozzle. The structural member is detachably mounted over the nozzle. The structural member is sized to cover the nozzle so that pressurized gas applied to the structural member forwardly thrusts the housing. Thus, the projectile is gun-launchable and can produce a ramjet action.
Claims7
A ramjet projectile adapted to be launched from a gun barrel, consisting of:
- a tubular housing having a forward air inlet with a throat, an aft nozzle, and a generally cylindrical combustion chamber contiguous therebetween
- said inlet having a throat with a first predetermined cross-sectional area,
- said forward air inlet having a sharp leading edge defining a forward-facing circular discoidal-shaped inlet with a second predetermined cross-sectional area,
- said first area being at least 0.6 of said second area,
- an annular layer of solid combustible material mounted in said housing between said inlet throat and said nozzle, and
- said combustion chamber having a cross-sectional area larger than said first predetermined cross-sectional area.
A lightweight ramjet training projectile for ballistically simulating an armor-piercing combat projectile having a ballistic coefficient C.sub.B according to the relationship:
- C.sub.B =W/C.sub.D A
- Wherein:
- W=The combat projectile total weight
- C.sub.D =The combat projectile drag coefficient and
- A=The combat projectile cross-sectioned area,
- said lightweight training projectile consisting of:
- a hollow cylindrical tubular housing having a forward inlet throat forms a surface of revolution, an aft nozzle, and a cylindrical combustion chamber contiguous therebetween having an inside diameter larger than said forward inlet throat, forming a rearward-facing step,
- an annular layer of combustible material mounted in said combustion chamber within said housing between said inlet throat and nozzle, and
- a structural member detachably mounted over said nozzle, said structural member being adapted to cover said nozzle, said lightweight training projectile having a total weight less than the weight of said combat projectile, and a substantially constant ramjet thrust less than its aerodynamic drag so that its ballistic coefficient C.sub.B of said training projectile according to above formula is equivalent to the ballistic coefficient C.sub.B of said combat projectile.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.