Weapon dispersal system
United States Patent [1 1 [111 3,874,266  
 Peterson Apr. 1, 1975 [54] WEAPON DISPERSAL SYSTEM 3,611,931 l0/l97l Bessey ct all l02/7.2  
 [75] Inventor: g ggg gh z g g? Palos verdes Primary Examiner-Verlin R. Pendegrass Attorney, Agent, or Firm--Harry A. Herbert, Jr.; [73] Assignee: The United States of America as Richard J. Killoren represented by the Secretary of the Air Force, Washington, DC. [57 ABSTRACT [22] Filed: Jan. 14, 1974 Bomb-pairs positioned in clip-in modules, mounted on rails in the bomb bay of an aircraft, having the decel- [zl i Appl&#39; 433l74 eration skirts replaced by separation devices. The separation devices have a cylindrical element which acts [52] U.S. Cl. 89/15, l02/7.2 as a piston attached to one bomb and a cylindrical ele- {Sl Int. Cl. B64d l/04 ment which acts as the cylinder attached to the other [58] Field of Search 89/l.5 R, 1.7; 102/2, 7.2 bomb of the bomb pair. A propellant charge is positioned within the separation device with the propellant [56] References Cited charge igniter being operated through a time delay de- UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,264,985 8/1966 Reed 89/15 R 1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures saw 2 i 2 EA PON DISPERSAL SYSTEM RIGHTS OF THE GOVERNMENT The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States for all governmental purposes without the payment of any royalty.  
 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION l o\\&#39; altitude dispersion. ofconventional type bombs. is always a problem. In order to saturate an area with conventional bombs. several passes. over the target area. have been required. Various mechanisms have been devised. such as in the US. Pat. No. to Myers, 3.439.6l and Flatau. 3.584.58l. for dispensing munitions over a large target area. However. heretofore. no satisfactory system existed for dispensing conventional bombs over a large area.  
 BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to this invention. bluff shaped weapons that are normally equipped with a deceleration skirt are modified by replacing the deceleration device with a separation device. In low altitude saturation bombing. the accuracy of any particular bomb is not important so that the deceleration skirt. which is used to enhance accuracy. is not needed. In the separation device. cylindrical elements are attached to the bombs with one dei ice acting as a piston and the other as a cylinder. Propellant charges. igniters delay devices and other elements as needed may be provided within the cylindrical elements. The desired separation velocities of the bombs may be obtained by varying the charges and by providing vents in the cylindrical elements. The twobomb units are stacked in vertical channel racks in the bomb bay of an aircraft. A toothed rack and mating sprocket teeth on the bombs help to maintain proper lateral orientation of the bomb pairs dropped from the aircraft.  
 IN THE DRAWING FIG. I is a partially cut away view of a two bomb unit according to the invention.  
  l-IG. 2 is a partially schematic view of a plurality of the bomb units of FIGv I in a plurality of bomb channel racks.  
  FIG. 3 is a top view ofone ofthe bomb channel racks of Fl(i. 2.  
 DFII&#39;AILED DES(RIPTION OF THE INVENTION Reference is made to FIG. I of the drawing which shows a bomb having a cylindrical element 12 fortnmg a piston member which fits inside a cylinder element 14 attached to bomb 16. A propellant charge unit I8 is positioned within cylindrical element 12 and is attached to the wall 20. A propellant charge unit 22 is positioned within cylinder element 14 and is attached to the wall 24. The propellant charges are ignited by the igniters 27 and 28. A signal applied to leads 30 from the on board computer is applied to a delay device 32. The delay device 32 may be a conventional mechanical clock mechanism. The clock mechanism is made to operate the igniters 27 and 28 after the bombs have dropped a predetermined distance below the aircraft. comentional safety mechanism. not shown. may be provided to prevent operation of the igniters until after the bombs have left the bomb rack.  
  The bombs are stacked in bomb channel racks 36 as shown in FIG. 2. Several channel racks are secured together to form a clip-in module having rollers 38 which ride on rails 40 to aid in loading bomb bay of the aircraft. Rails may be provided in the bomb bay to accom modate more than one clip-in module. The clip-in modules may be secured in the bay by means of conventional locking means. shown schematically at 42.  
  A pair of toothed rack elements are made to mate with sprocket teeth 46 on the bombs. Solenoid elements 47 have plunger rods 48 engaging the sprocket teeth 46 to hold the bomb in the channel rack. Signals from the on board computer operate the solenoids to release the bombs in any desired sequence.  
  Other means than that shown. such as lock linkages. may be used for locking and releasing the bombs. A single propellant charge may also be used. in some applications. in the separation device. Also. opening vents may be provided in the walls of the cylindrical-element l2 and cylinder element 14 to vary the velocities to obtain the desired bomb pattern.  
  In the operation of the device. signals from the on board computer operate the bomb releases. start the clock mechanism and arm the bombs in a conventional manner. Bomb pairs may be dropped from the clip-in modules in any predetermined sequence. After a bomb pair has dropped a predetermined distance below the aircraft. as determined by the delay mechanism. the igniters are energized. The propellant charge then propels the bombs away from each other with the velocity as determined by the charge. The bombs exhibit reasonable stability without the deceleration skirt due to the forward center of gravity and long cylindrical tail members 12 and I4.  
  There is thus provided a low altitude bomb dispersion system which makes it possible to saturate a target area with conventional type bombs.  
 I claim:  
  I. A weapon dispersal system for conventional bluff shaped bombs. comprising a bomb pair including a first bomb having a first cylindrical member secured to the end thereof and a second bomb having a second cylindrical member secured to the end thereof; said second cylindrical member being positioned within the first cylindrical member and forming a piston member within the first cylindrical member and adapted to form a separate device for the bomb pair; at least one propellant charge positioned within said cylindrical membersLa plurality of vertical channel racks forming clip-in modules adapted to be secured in the bomb bay of an aircraft; means in said channel racks for securing a plurality of bomb pairs in each vertical channel rack: said securing means including means for selectively releasing the bomb pairs from the channel racks: said bomb pairs and said channel racks including means for maintaining proper lateral orientation of the bomb pairs leaving the channel racks: means for igniting said propellant charge; said means for igniting said propellant charge including means for providing a predetermined time delay in the ignition of said propellant charge. whereby the bomb pair will drop a predetermined distance below the aircraft before ignition; said means for maintaining proper lateral orientation of the bomb pair within the vertical racks including a pair of spaced toothed racks within the vertical channel racks and mating sprocket teeth on said bomb pair.  
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