Ordnance – Mounts – Trunnion
Reexamination Certificate
2003-11-07
2004-09-14
Keith, Jack (Department: 3641)
Ordnance
Mounts
Trunnion
Reexamination Certificate
active
06789455
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to aircraft armament apparatus and, in a preferred embodiment thereof, more particularly relates to the external mounting of armament apparatus on a helicopter.
The “Blackhawk” military helicopter has a cabin area positioned behind the cockpit area and having sliding gunner's windows on opposite sides thereof. Using conventional mounting techniques, either 7.62 mm mini-guns or single barrel 7.62 mm machine guns may be mounted on the horizontal sill areas of these gunner's windows on articulated support linkage assemblies that permit the guns to be swung outwardly through the opened windows to use orientations, or inwardly through the opened windows to storage orientations. Various well-known problems, limitations and disadvantages are associated with this conventional helicopter armament mounting technique.
For example, with both the 7.62 mm mini-guns and the single barrel 7.62 mm machine gun, the articulated, sill-mounted support structure for the gun has an undesirable amount of positional “play” therein which, although necessary for gun adjustment and deployment, substantially degrades the firing accuracy of the gun. Additionally, while the single barrel 7.62 mm machine gun has an ammo box mounted directly on the gun, the 7.62 mm mini-gun has an external ammo box that must be positioned in the adjacent cabin area, with the belted ammunition fed from the ammo box, out the gunner's window and to the gun. This, of course, undesirably clutters up the cabin area. Another problem associated with this sill mounting of both the 7.62 mm mini-gun and the 7.62 mm single barrel machine gun is that the gunner's windows cannot be closed with the guns in their ready positions. This inability to close these windows leads to uncomfortably cold cabin temperatures during cold weather missions, and fuel mist potentially entering the cabin area during in-flight refueling.
With either the 7.62 mm mini-gun or the 7.62 mm single barrel machine conventionally mounted on a cabin area gunner's window sill, the maximum upward firing angle of the gun relative to horizontal is approximately 1.5 degrees. This is due to the fact that, with the sill-mounted gun pointed forwardly along a side of the helicopter, this is the maximum upward firing elevation angle of the gun that (with a predetermined margin of safety) will position its bullet path safely beneath the helicopter's forwardly drooped rotor blade tip path to preclude bullet impact with the spinning rotor blades. This 1.5 degree maximum upward elevational firing angle of the gun undesirably limits the maximum firing range of the gun when the gun is swung away from its forwardly pointed orientation—for example when it is being fired off to the side of the helicopter or to the rear thereof.
Yet another limitation presented by this conventional helicopter window sill-mounting of machine guns is that larger machine guns, such as to 0.50 caliber machine guns, are difficult to deploy, and, because of their weight, intensify crash load issues.
These problems, limitations and disadvantages associated with conventional gunner's window sill mounting of machine guns were addressed by the present applicant's helicopter sponson tow plate-mounted armament apparatus illustrated in his U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,197, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. In such armament apparatus, a machine gun, ammo box and flare dispenser are externally mounted, adjacent a gunner's window, on a specially designed landing gear sponson replacement tow plate. The external machine gun mounting permitted by this specially designed system frees up cabin space, permit's the gunner's window to be closed with the gun in a ready position, and permits a 0.50 caliber machine gun to be used as an alternative to either a 7.62 mm mini-gun or a single barrel 7.62 mm machine gun adjacent the gunner' window.
While the tow plate-mounted helicopter armament apparatus illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,197 provides the advantages set forth above, it has been found in the development of the system that it would be desirable to provide it with various modifications and improvements to the design—such as improved positioning of its components, the provision of additional external armament, cost reduction, enhanced positional control of the machine gun, and maintenance and installation simplification—would be desirable. It is to these improvements in the design of the sponson tow plate-mounted external helicopter armament apparatus illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,197 that the present invention is primarily directed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In carrying out principles of the present invention, in accordance with a preferred embodiment thereof, specially designed external armament apparatus is secured to an aircraft landing gear structure, representatively a landing gear sponson tow plate of a helicopter. Although various components of the armament apparatus may be deleted, and various component combinations may be utilized depending on the helicopter's mission, in a representatively complete form thereof the external armament apparatus illustratively comprises:
1. A pintle arm assembly secured to and projecting upwardly from a central outboard side portion of the tow plate;
2. A yoke assembly secured to an upper end portion of the pintle arm assembly for horizontal pivoting relative thereto;
3. A cradle assembly secured to the yoke assembly for horizontal pivoting therewith and vertical pivoting relative thereto;
4. A machine gun, representatively a 0.50 caliber machine gun, operatively carried by the cradle assembly;
5. An ammunition box/booster assembly mounted on a top side edge portion of the tow plate, inboard of the pintle arm assembly, and adapted to hold a length of belted ammunition feedable to the machine gun;
6. A flare dispenser mounted on a rear end portion of the tow plate and positioned generally beneath the pivot area of the machine gun;
7. An external stores assembly including a support structure secured to the outboard side of a lower end portion of the pintle arm assembly and external stores apparatus, representatively a missile launcher, operatively mounted on the support structure; and
8. A forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensor secured to a front end portion of the tow plate.
The machine gun, which may be of various types, including, for example, a 0.50 caliber gun, a 7.62 mm mini-gun, or a single barrel 7.62 mm machine gun, is operatively supported outside a gunner's window to thereby permit the window to be closed when the gun is not being used, and the external positioning of the ammunition box reduces clutter in the cabin area of the helicopter. The positioning of the flare dispenser beneath the pivot area of the machine gun prevents potential interference between the flare dispenser and the gun barrel/projectile path when the gun is being pivoted in a depressed elevational orientation.
In one illustrative embodiment thereof, the pintle arm assembly includes a pintle block member secured to a central outboard side portion of the tow plate and has an opening extending therethrough along an upwardly and rearwardly inclined axis. An elongated, substantially straight support arm member extends along a longitudinal axis and has a lower end portion coaxially locked within the pintle block opening by a transverse retaining pin structure. The lower end of the support arm has a conically tapered annular outer side surface portion which engages a similarly tapered interior surface portion of the pintle block opening. A tapered annular collet member is forced against a second conically tapered annular interior surface area of the pintle block opening by a nut tightened onto a threaded lower end of the support arm.
In an alternate embodiment of the pintle arm assembly, the support arm has a uniform cross-section along its length and is captively retained within the pintle block opening
Chambers Troy
Keith Jack
Konneker & Smith P.C.
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