GB2168794A

GB2168794A - Wing or fin deploying mechanism

Info

Publication number: GB2168794A
Application number: GB08523814A
Authority: GB
Inventors: George Cureton; Peter George King
Original assignee: Commonwealth of Australia
Current assignee: Commonwealth of Australia
Priority date: 1984-10-01
Filing date: 1985-09-27
Publication date: 1986-06-25
Also published as: FR2571133B1; AU4812385A; GB2168794B; GB8523814D0; AU584637B2; FR2571133A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a wing or fin deploying mechanism for a vehicle, particularly a box launched missile, having awing or fin in a retracted position prior to launching, said wing or fin 10 being pivotally movable about a pivot axis 12 from a retracted position to a deployed position by a drive means 15 which includes a pivoting member 16 connected to the wing or fin 10 at a point 17 displaced from the pivot axis 12, the other driving end 19 of the pivoting member 16 is moved through an arc so that the wing or fin is initially accelerated and then decelerated before reaching its final deployed position, a line 31 is fastened to the launcher, the other end passing around a drum 32 so that the drum 32 rotates to provide the wing or fin deploying driving force upon launching of the vehicle, stop means 26, 27 preventing reverse movement of the wing or fin from its deployed position, and the kinetic energy in the mechanism is allowed to dissipate due to friction by having the drive disengage. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Wing or fin deploying mechanism This invention relates to a wing or fin deploying mechanism for a vehicle having a wing in a retracted position prior to vehicle launching or takeoff. The invention is particularly applicable to the deployment of wings of a missile immediately upon launching but the invention is not limited to this particular field of application. For example, the deploying mechanism may be used with a water going vehicle such as a torpedo in which case a retracted fin constitutes the "wing".

The anti-submarine Ikara missiles presently used in some naval vessels have fixed wings. The missiles are launched from a special launcher provided on the vessel and the missiles must be stored in a specially constructed magazine from which the missiles can be fed to the launcher.

It would be advantageous if the Ikara anti-submarine missile could be "box launched" from a standard missile launcher that can be used for launching other kinds of missiles. "Box launching" meaning a missile which is launched from its own storage casing. To enable the Ikara missile to be box launched, the wings need to be initially folded so that the missile can fit within a suitable sized casing. Upon launching such a folded wing Ikara missile, the wings would need to be deployed rapidly immediately upon launching, and preferably within about 0.25 of a second, so as to enable controlled flight of the missile during, as well as after, the initial acceleration phase of the flight.

The present invention aims to provide a wing deploying mechanism which is capable of rapidly deploying an initially retracted wing or fin.

According to the present invention there is provided a wing or fin deploying mechanism for deploying a pivotally movable wing or fin of a vehicle, the wing or fin being pivotally movable about a pivot axis from a retracted position to a deployed position, the wing or fin deploying mechanism including drive means for driving the win or fin from its retracted to its deployed position, cou pling means being provided between the vehicle and a launcher from which the vehicle is launched, the coupling means being arranged so that kinetic energy developed as the vehicle is launched from the launcher is transferred by way of the coupling means to the drive means so as to operate the same and thereby effect deployment of the pivot ally movable wing or fin during launch of the vehi cle from the launcher, said drive means including a pivoting member for connecting to the wing or fin at a connection point displaced from the pivot axis so that the pivoting member is arranged to apply a turning moment of force to the wing or fin in the direction of wing or fin deployment, the drive means being operable to produce an accelerating deploying movement of the wing or fin from its retracted position and is further operable to subse quently produce a decelerating deploying movement of the wing or fin before the wing or fin reached its deployed position.

The concept of driving the wing or fin so that it is accelerated and subsequently decelerated enables the wing or fin to be rapidly deployed but without the inertial and/or aerodynamic forces developed during the deployment creating excessively great structural loadings when the wing or fin reaches its deployed position. For example, if the wing or fin were be accelerated continuously to its deployed position or were to be moved at a constant speed to its deployed position, at which point the wing or fin were to be brought to a dead stop, great and possibly unacceptably high structural loadings would be placed on the wing or fin and/or wing or fin mounting.

Also the use of coupling means between the vehicle and the launcher enables the energy for driving the wing or fin deploying mechanism is derived from the kinetic energy developed during the vehicle launching.

According to a further aspect, the present invention is characterised in that the drive means includes a pivoting member for connecting to the wing or fin at a connection point displaced from the pivot axis so that the pivoting member is arranged to applying a turning moment of force to the wing or fin in the direction of wing or fin deployment, the drive means being operable to produce an accelerating deploying movement of the wing or fin from its retracted position and is further operable to subsequently reduce a decelerating deploying movement of the wing or fin before the wing or fin reaches its deployed position, the wing or fin deploying mechanism further including retaining means for retaining the wing or fin in its deployed position and for preventing reverse movement of the wing or fin away from its deployed position towards its retracted position.

The drive means may include a drum rotatably mounted to the vehicle and arranged so that rotation of the drum causes operation of the drive means, the coupling means comprising a line arranged to be secured at one end to the launcher, the line being wound around the drum so that as the vehicle is launched, the line will cause the drum to rotate as it unwinds from the drum.To allow the vehicle to clear the launcher before wing or fin deployment, the drum may be mounted on a threaded shaft so that the initial rotational movement of the drum during vehicle launching causes the drum to wind along the threaded shaft without transmitting drive to that shaft, the drum having a limit of relative rotational movement along the threaded shaft so that, after the drum reaches that limit, continued rotation of the drum causes the shaft to rotate, rotation of the shaft causing operation of the drive means.

The drive means may be operable to irreversibly drive the pivoting member whereby accelerating and decelerating of the wing or fin is substantially entirely controlled by the drive means and so that inertial and/or aerodynamic forces transmitted from the wing or fin back through the pivoting member as the wing or fin is decelerated do not substantially affect the controlled deceleration of the wing or fin.For this purpose the drive means may include a driving worm and a co-opreating driven worm wheel, the worm wheel being connected to the pivoting member for transmitting drive thereto, the arrangement being such that reverse direction forces acting through the pivoting member and worm wheel are resisted by intrinsic resistance of the driving worm to being driven by the worm wheel and also by with the forwardly directed deploying forces being applied by the driving worm to the driven worm wheel.

In one possible preferred mechanism, the pivoting member extends between the connection point and a driving point, the driving point being movable through an arcuate path to effect deploying movement of the wing or fin. The arcuate path preferably approaches or extends along a line transverse to the line from the driving point to the connection point at the final part of movement of the driving point so that the pivoting moment of force applied through the pivoting member to the wing or fin will reduce towards zero as the wing or fin reaches its deployed position and thereby to effect deceleration of the wing or fin during the final parts of its pivoting movement to its deployed position.

If desired, the arcuate path may pass along and later extend slightly beyond the line transverse to the line from the driving point to the connection point, the pivoting member being restrained by stop means against further movement when the driving point has reached the limit of its travel along the arcuate path so that any tendency of the wing or fin to move away from its deployed position towards its retracted position will produce a force along the pivoting member which tends to move the driving point in a direction such that the pivoting member presses harder in the direction resisted by the stop means.Alternatively or in addition, there may be further provided a retractable stop member which is operative to extend when the wing or fin reaches its deployed position into an advanced position where it prevents reverse movement of the driving point of the pivoting member around the arcuate path.

The drive means is preferably operative to be disengaged so as to discontinue application of force to the pivoting member as the wing or fin reaches its deployed position so as to allow dissipation of kinetic energy developed in the drive means. This may be achieved by providing a worm wheel which has an incomplete ring of worm follower teeth so that as the wing or fin reaches its deployed position, the last of the worm wheel teeth runs off the worm thereby disengaging the worm from the worm wheel as the wing or fin reaches its deployed position and allowing the drive means to run freely and thereby allow kinetic energy to be dissipated under frictional losses.Alternatively, the worm wheel tooth or teeth which are engaged by the worm wheel when the wing or fin reaches its deployed position are shearable from the worm wheel so that as the wing or fin reaches its deployed position the worm wheel will be stopped and as the worm continues to rotate it will shear off the last tooth or teeth of the worm wheel enabling dissipation of kinetic energy in the drive means under frictional losses.

A preferred embodiment of a wing deploying mechanism according to the present invention will now be described, by way of an example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a top sectional view of a wing deploying mechanism according to one embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 shows an end view of the worm and worm wheel used in the mechanism of Figure 1; and Figure 3 shows an end view of the crank, pivoting member and pivoted wing.

The mechanism in the drawings is arranged for simultaneously deploying two opposite wings but the invention will be generally described with reference to deployment of a single wing.

The wing deploying mechanism of the present invention is for deploying a pivotally movable wing 10 (Figure 3), the wing 10 being movable from a retracted position to the deployed position as shown in Figure 3. It will be convenient to herein describe the invention in relation to deployment of an Ikara anti-submarine missile wing, but the invention is not limited to this particular application.

The missile wing 10 is pivotally mounted to the missile body 11 so as to be movable from its retracted to its deployed position about a pivot axis 12. The wing 10 is initially folded downwardly with the pivot axis 12 generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the missile body 11 so that as the missile is launched and the wing 10 commences to move from the retracted to the deployed position, the aerodynamic lift provided by the air flow over the wing surface assists upward movement of the wing 10 to its deployed position.

The wing deploying mechanism includes a drive means 15 for driving the wing 10 from its retracted to its deployed position, the drive means 15 including a pivoting member 16 for connecting to the wing 10 at a connection point 17 displaced from the pivot axis 12 so that the pivoting member 16 is arranged to apply a turning moment of force to the wing 10 in the direction of wing deployment. The drive means 15 is operable in a manner to produce an accelerating deploying movement of the wing 10 from its retracted position and is further operable to subsequently produce a decelerating deploying movement of the wing 10 before reaching its deployed position In the illustrated embodiment of the drive means 15, the pivoting member 16 comprises a pivoting arm extending between the connection point 17 and a crank 18 of the drive means. At the driving crank point 19 where the pivoting arm 16 is connected to the crank 18 there is provided a crank pin 20, as will be well understood in the art. To decelerate the wing 10 during the final parts of its pivoting movement to its deployed position, the crank 18 and pivoting arm 16 are arranged so that the crank point 19 during the final parts of its movement along line A approaches to and desirably moves along a line transverse to the line from the crank point 19 to the connection point 17 whereby the pivoting moment of force applied by the crank 18 through the pivoting arm 16 to the wing 10 will reduce towards and desirably reach zero as the wing 10 reaches its deployed position.

The drive means 15 is arranged for irreversibly driving the pivoting member 16. That is, the drive means 15 is arranged so that the accelerating and decelerating of the wing 10 is substantially entirely controlled by the drive means 15 and so that inertial and/or aerodynamic forces transmitted from the wing 10 back through the pivoting member 16 as the wing 10 is to be decelerated do not substantially affect the drive means controlled deceleration. To achieve the irreversible driving effect of the drive means 15, in the preferred embodiment the crank 18 is drivable from a worm wheel 22 which, in turn, is driven by a worm 23.A characteristic of this type of drive is that reverse direction forces through the pivoting arm 16, crank 18 and worm wheel 22 are readily resisted by intrinsic resistance of the worm 23 to being driven by the worm wheel 22 and also by forwardly directed deploying forces being applied by the worm 23 to the worm wheel 22.

The wing deploying mechanism includes means 25 for retaining or locking the wing 10 in its deployed position. In the Figure 3 embodiment, the crank 18 is arranged to rest against a fixed stop 26 when the crank point 19 has moved slightly beyond the line of movement transverse to the line from the crank point 19 to the connection point 17.

In this way, any tendency of the wing 10 to move away from its deployed position towards its retracted position will produce a force along the pivoting arm 16 which tends to move the crank point 19 in the direction such that the crank 18 presses harder against the fixed stop 26. The mechanism may alternatively or (as shown) further include a retractable stop member 27, which is arranged to extend when the wing 10 reaches its deployed position into an advanced position (shown) where it engages with and prevents reverse movement of the crank 18 and/or the pivoting arm 16.

The energy for driving the wing deploying mechanism and for driving the worm 23 in the preferred embodiment, is preferably derived from the kinetic energy developed during the missile launching. For example, in the illustrated embodiment there is provided coupling means 30 in the form of a lanyard or line 31 secured at one end to the launcher, the lanyard 31 being wound around a drum 32 provided in the missile body 11 so that as the missile is launched, the lanyard 31 will cause the drum 32 to rotate as the lanyard 31 unwinds from the drum 32. The end of the lanyard 31 wound around the drum 32 may not be fastened to the drum 32 so that when the missile has travelled the total length of the lanyard 31, the lanyard 31 simply runs off the drum 32 and is left behind at the launcher. The drum rotation can be transmitted in any convenient way to the worm 23.

In the case of the Ikara missile launching from a casing or box mounted on the launcher, it is desirable to prevent wing deployment while the missile is still in the box during the first two or three metres of movement. To achieve delay in wing deployment there may be some lost motion in the transmission of drive from the drum 32 to the worm 23. This may be achieved by mounting the drum 32 on a threaded shaft 33 so that the first several rotations of the drum 32 merely winds the drum 32 along the threaded shaft 33 without transmitting drive to the shaft 33. When the drum 32 reaches the end of its travel along the threaded shaft 33, continued rotation of the drum 32 causes the shaft 33 to rotate, which rotational movement is transmitted to the worm 23.Also, if desired, some form of clutch mechanism may be provided between the drum 32 and the worm 23 to reduce shock loadings to the worm 23, worm wheel 22, etc.

The drive from the drum shaft 33 to the worm 23 may be provided by means of a chain drive. For example, a sprocket 35 may be provided on the drum shaft 33 and another sprocket 36 on the worm shaft 37 around which a drive chain 38 extends. To provide the desired configuration for mounting within the missile body 11, various idler sprockets 39 may be provided along the chain path.

To allow dissipation of kinetic energy accumulated in the drum 32, chain 38 and sprockets (which will be running at high speed by the time that the wing 10 reaches its deployed position and the crank 18 engages the stop 26), the worm 23 is arranged to disengage from the worm wheel 22 as the wing 10 reaches its deployed position. This disengagement is achieved in the Figure 2 arrangement by providing a worm wheel 22 having an incomplete ring of worm follower teeth 40 so that as the wing 10 reaches its deployed position, the last of the worm wheel teeth 40 runs off the worm 23. This construction is possible, since the mechanism can be constructed such that the worm wheel 22 travels through, say, about 220 as the wing 10 moves from its retracted to its deployed position.

With this arrangement the drum 32, sprockets 39, chain 38 and worm 23 will be free-running after the wing 10 reaches its deployed position and can thereby run down under frictional losses.

In an alternative possibility, the worm wheel tooth or teeth 40, which are engaged by the worm 23 when the wing 10 reaches its deployed position, may be shearable from the worm wheel 22. In this arrangement, when the wing 10 reaches ts deployed position and the crank 18 engages the stop 26, the worm wheel 22 in turn will be stopped. As the worm 23 continues to rotate, the worm 23 will shear off the last tooth or teeth 40 of the worm wheel 22 so that, as before, the drum 32, sprockets 39, chain 38 and worm 23 will be free-running. To allow shearing of the last tooth or teeth, such teeth may be of reduced height so that they offer less resistance to shearing by the worm 23.

It will be seen from Figure 3 that the crank point 19, where the pivoting arm is connected to the crank, is initially near to the pivot axis 12 (as shown at 19a) so that there is a resultant relatively low moment of force moving the wing 10 from its retracted to its deployed position. As the crank point 19 moves away from the pivot axis 12 along line A, the deploying force rapidly increases, not only due to the increasing distance of the crank point 19 from the pivot axis 12, but also because the progressive acceleration of the vehicle is accelerating the rotational speed of the worm wheel 22.

During the final stages of movement of the wing 10 to its deployed position, the crank point 19 is moving along line A that approaches and eventually coincides with a line transverse to the line connecting the crank point 19 to the connection point 17. Therefore, during this final stage of movement, the pivoting arm 16 will actually be decelerating the angular movement of the wing 10 to its deployed position. When the crank 18 engages the fixed stop 26, the worm wheel 22 is stopped. Also, the retractable stop member 27 advances to the position illustrated, preventing reverse clockwise movement of the crank 18.The teeth 40 of the worm wheel 22 by this stage have just run off the worm 23 or alternatively, the worm 23 during its continued rotation, strips or shears the tooth or teeth 40 from the worm wheel 22 and the drum 32, sprockets 39, chain 38 and worms 23 run down under frictional effects. Movement of the wings back towards their retracted positions is prevented because of the final position of the crank point 19 being beyond the point where the crank point line of movement A is transverse to the line from the crank point 19 to the connection point 17, andfor because of the operative advance of the retractable stop member 27.

It will be appreciated that the preferred embodiment of the wing deploying mechanism hereinbefore described and illustrated enables rapid but controlled deployment of an initially retracted wing. The deployment is irreversible. Also, the mechanism can be made quite compact and utilises the kinetic energy of the vehicle launch to effect wing deployment.

Claims

1. A wing or fin deploying mechanism for deploying a pivotally movable wing or fin of a vehicle, the wing or fin being pivotally movable about a pivot axis from a retracted position to a deployed position, the wing or fin deploying mechanism including drive means for driving the wing or fin from is retracted to its deployed position, coupling means being provided between the vehicle and a launcher from which the vehicle is launched, the coupling means being arranged so that kinetic energy developed as the vehicle is launched from the launcher is transferred by way of the coupling means to the drive means so as to operate the same and thereby effect deployment of the pivotally movable wing or fin during launch of the vehicle from the launcher, said drive means including a pivoting member for connecting to the wing or fin at a connection point displaced from the pivot axis so that the pivoting member is arranged to apply a turning moment of force to the wing or fin in the direction of wing or fin deployment, the drive means being operable to produce an accelerating deploying movement of the wing or fin from its retracted position and is further operable to subsequently produce a decelerating deploying movement of the wing or fin before the wing or fin reaches its deployed position.

2. A wing or fin deploying mechanism as claimed in claim 1, in which the drive means includes a drum rotatably mounted to the vehicle and arranged so that rotation of the drum causes operation of the drive means, said coupling means comprising a line arranged to be secured at one end to the launcher, the line being wound around the drum of the drive means, the arrangement being such that as the vehicle is launched the line will cause the drum to rotate as the line unwinds from the drum.

3. A wing or fin deploying mechanism as claimed in claim 2, in which the drum is mounted on a threaded shaft so that the initial rotational movement of the drum during vehicle launching causes the drum to wind along the threaded shaft without transmitting drive to that shaft, the drum having a limit of relative rotational movement along the threaded shaft so that, after the drum reaches that limit, continued rotation of the drum causes the shaft to rotate, rotation of the shaft causing operation of the drive means, whereby wing or fin deployment is delayed until after an initial stage of movement of the vehicle during launching thereof.

4. A wing or fin deploying mechanism as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the drive means is operable to irreversibly drive the pivoting member whereby accelerating and decelerating of the wing or fin is substantially entirely controlled by the drive means and so that inertial andlor aerodynamic forces transmitted from the wing or fin back through the pivoting member as the wing or fin is decelerated do not substantially affect the controlled deceleration of the wing or fin.

5. A wing or fin deploying mechanism as claimed in claim 4, in which the drive means includes a driving worm and a co-operating driven worm wheel, the worm wheel being connected to the pivoting member for transmitting drive thereto, the arrangement being such that reverse direction forces acting through the pivoting member and worm wheel are resisted by intrinsic resistance of the driving worm to being driven by the worm wheel and also by the forwardly directed deploying forces being applied by the driving worm to the driven worm wheel.

6. A wing or fin deploying mechanism as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the pivoting member extends between the connection point and a driving point, the driving point being movable through an arcuate path to effect deploying movement of the wing or fin, the arcuate path approaching or extending along a line transverse to the line from the driving point to the connection point at the final part of movement of the driving point whereby the pivoting moment of force applied through the pivoting member to the wing or fin will reduce towards zero as the wing or fin reaches its deployed position so as to effect deceleration of the wing or fin during the final parts of its pivoting movement to its deployed position.

7. A wing or fin deploying mechanism as claimed in claim 6, in which the arcuate path passes along and later extends slightly beyond a line transverse to the line from the driving point to the connection point, the pivoting member being restrained by stop means against further movement when the driving point has reached the limit of its travel along the arcuate path so that any tendency of the wing or fin to move away from its deployed position towards its retracted position will produce a force along the pivoting member which tends to move the driving point in a direction such that the pivoting member presses harder in the directed resisted by the stop means.

8. A wing or fin deploying mechanism as claimed in claim 6 or claim 7, in which there is further provided a retractable stop member which is operative to extend when the wing or fin reaches its deployed position into an advanced position where it prevents reverse movement of the driving point of the pivoting member around the arcuate path.

9. A wing or fin deploying mechanism as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the drive means is operative to be disengaged so as to discontinue application of force to the pivoting member as the wing or fin reaches its deployed position so as to allow dissipation of kinetic energy developed in the drive means.

10. A wing or fin deploying mechanism as claimed in claim 9 when appended to claim 5, in which the worm wheel has an incomplete ring of worm follower teeth so that as the wing or fin reaches its deployed position the last of the worm wheel teeth runs off the worm thereby disengaging the worm from the worm wheel as the wing or fin reaches its deployed position allowing the drive means to run freely and thereby kinetic energy to be dissipated under frictional losses.

11. A wing or fin deploying mechanism as claimed in claim 9 when appended to claim 5, in which the worm wheel tooth or teeth which are engaged by the worm when the wing or fin reaches its deployed position are shearable from the worm wheel so that as the wing or fin reaches its deployed position the worm wheel will be stopped and as the worm continues to rotate it will shear off the last tooth or teeth of the worm wheel enabling dissipation of kinetic energy in the drive means under frictional losses.

12. A wing or fin deploying mechanism for deploying a pivotally movable wing or fin of a vehicle, the wing or fin being pivotally movable about a pivot axis from a retracted position to a deployed position, the wing or fin deploying mechanism including drive means for driving the wing or fin from its retracted to its deployed position, said drive means including a pivoting member for connecting to the wing or fin at a connection point displaced from the pivot axis so that the pivoting member is arranged to apply a turning moment of force to the wing or fin in the direction of wing or fin deployment, the drive means being operable to produce an accelerating deploying movement of the wing or fin from its retracted position and is further operable to subsequently produce a decelerating deploying movement of the wing or fin before the wing or fin reaches its deployed position, the wing or fin deploying mechanism further including retaining means for retaining the wing or fin in its deployed position and for preventing reverse movement of the wing or fin away from its deployed position towards its retracted position.

13. A wing or fin deploying mechanism as claimed in claim 12, in which the pivoting member extends between the connection point and a driving point, the driving point being movable through an arcuate path to effect deploying movement of the wing or fin, the arcuate path approaching or extending along a line transverse to the line from the driving point to the connection point at the final part of movement of the driving point whereby the pivoting moment of force applied through the pivoting member to the wing or fin will reduce towards zero as the wing or fin reaches its deployed position so as to effect deceleration of the wing or fin during the final parts of its pivoting member to its deployed position, the pivoting member being restrained by stop means against further movement when the driving point has reached its limit of travel along the arcuate path.

14. A wing or fin deploying mechanism substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.