1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an airborne body possessing an over-caliber sized guidance mechanism having control surfaces which are retracted into the structure of the airborne body and arrested therein at their end surfaces through a securing arrangement so as to be released for outward extension into the operative position of the guidance mechanism in dependence upon an acceleration in the firing or launching direction.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
An airborne body of the type under consideration herein is known from the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,058, commonly assigned to the assignee of the present application. In that instance, the airborne body with retracted control surfaces is inserted into a front-loader weapon barrel or launch tube, so as to be fired therefrom in the manner of mortar ammunition. With the initiation of the firing acceleration, occasioned through the triggering of the propellent charge, the securing pins which are individually arranged in the control surfaces will unlatch, so that the control surfaces can swing outwardly up to contact against the inner casing surface of the launch tube or barrel, and subsequent to exiting from the tube can swing completely outwardly into the radially extended operative position.
However, the invention concurrently relates to correspondingly equipped airborne bodies, which are launched from a launching device as rockets through the intermediary of a firing or launching propulsion mechanism; and especially pertains to airborne bodies which are fired from a rifled weapon barrel or launch tube; however, with a reduced spin, for example, as is illustrated with respect to flight end-phase guided artillery ammunition as disclosed in WEHRTECHNIK, Vol. 9/1986, page 47 lower right. In such instances, due to reasons of ensuring operational dependability and safety in launching of the airborne body, it is not permissible that the control surfaces which have already been released from the securing arrangement can still support themselves in the starting or launching arrangement; in effect, within the weapon barrel, and since the outward pivoting into the operative position at the beginning of free-flight can evidence irregularities, there is encountered the quite considerable danger that from the foregoing this can result in launching malfunctions and, as a consequence, errors in delivery; in effect, this can produce a diminished effect of the airborne body in the envisioned target object.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds