Projectile with single-piece main body

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10247530-B2
Application number	US-201615217482-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 22, 2016
Priority date	Jul 22, 2016
Publication date	Apr 2, 2019
Grant date	Apr 2, 2019

Abstract

A projectile, such as a railgun-launched projectile, includes a single-piece body that is additively manufactured. The single piece body includes fuel within it, and one or more cavities for receiving an oxidizer. The body also defines one or more combustion chambers therein for combustion of the fuel and oxidizer as part of a divert thruster system. Thus the projectile is able to fully contain the divert thruster system within the single-piece body without using any hot gas seals as part of the system. The body may also define a cavity for receiving a pressurized fluid, used as part of a cold-gas attitude control system of the projectile. The body may also define passages between the pressurized fluid cavity and other parts of the attitude control system, such as valves and/or nozzles that are outside of the body, for example being aft of the one-piece body.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A projectile comprising:
a one-piece body;
a divert thruster system; and
an attitude control system;
wherein the attitude control system includes a pressurized fluid in a pressurized fluid cavity defined by the body;
wherein the divert thruster system includes fuel, and an oxidizer in one or more additional cavities defined by the body;
wherein the body defines one or more combustion cavities for combustion of the fuel and the oxidizer;
wherein the body defines one or more passages connecting the pressurized fluid cavity to components of the attitude control system that are external to the body, aft of the body;
wherein the attitude control system includes attitude control thrusters that are external to the body; and
wherein the attitude control thrusters are cold gas thrusters or warm gas thrusters.

2. The projectile of claim 1 , wherein the body is additively manufactured.

3. The projectile of claim 1 , wherein the body is made of plastic.

4. The projectile of claim 1 , wherein the body is made of a metal.

5. The projectile of claim 1 , wherein the fuel is part of the body.

6. The projectile of claim 1 , wherein the fuel is in one or more fuel cavities defined by the body.

7. The projectile of claim 6 , wherein the fuel and the body are different materials.

8. The projectile of claim 6 , wherein the fuel is additively manufactured along with the body.

9. The projectile of claim 6 , wherein the fuel is a separate insert inserted into the body during additive manufacture of the body.

10. The projectile of claim 1 , wherein the fuel includes multiple fuel segments and multiple respective oxidizer charges, for providing multiple divert thrusts.

11. The projectile of claim 1 ,
wherein the body includes pads; and
wherein the attitude control system includes valves and/or nozzles hooked up to the pads.

12. The projectile of claim 1 , wherein the divert thruster system includes one or more nozzle inserts in the body.

13. The projectile of claim 12 , wherein the one or more nozzle inserts are made of ceramic.

14. The projectile of claim 1 , wherein the divert thruster system further includes one or more igniters.

15. The projectile of claim 1 , wherein the oxidizer and the pressurized fluid are both the same fluid.

16. The projectile of claim 15 , wherein the oxidizer and the pressurized fluid are both nitrous oxide.

17. The projectile of claim 1 , wherein the projectile is a rail gun projectile.

18. The projectile of claim 1 , wherein the attitude control thrusters are cold gas thrusters that directly expelled the pressurized fluid.

19. The projectile of claim 1 , wherein the attitude control thrusters are warm gas thrusters that pass the pressurized fluid through a heated catalyst before expelling the pressurized fluid.

Assignees

• Raytheon Co

Inventors

• Danforth Jeremy C
• Summers Matthew H
• Garrett David G
• Bagg Stephen M

Classifications

• F42B10/661 Primary

  using several transversally acting rocket motors, each motor containing an individual propellant charge, e.g. solid charge · CPC title

• B33Y80/00

  Products made by additive manufacturing · CPC title

• F02K9/97

  Rocket nozzles (thrust or thrust vector control F02K9/80) · CPC title

• F42B6/006 Primary

  Projectiles for electromagnetic or plasma guns · CPC title

• F02K9/425

  Propellants · CPC title