US2910096A - Minimized drag tow target construction - Google Patents

Description

v Filed may 4. 195s Oct'. 27, 1959 E. FRI-:Y 2,910,096

MINTMIZED DRAG Tow TARGET CONSTRUCTION ATToR'zmYs Oct. 27, 1959 E. FREY 2,910,096

MINIMIZED DRAG rTow TARGET CONSTRUCTION Filed May 4. 195e 2 sheets-sheet 2 #i Ri IN VEN TOR.

Elia/wld Frey limited States Patent v .2,910,096 NIINIMIZED DRAG TOW TARGET CONSTRUCTION Edward Frey, Akron, Ohio, assignor to The Massillon- Cleveland-Akron Sign Company, Massillon, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application May 4, 1956, Serial No. 582,749

3 Claims. (Cl. 139-419) The invention relates to minimized drag tow target construction of the banner type, and constitutes improvements of the tow target construction set forth in my prior application for United States Letters Patent, Serial No. 554,977, tiled December 23, 1955, now Patent No. 2,807,287.

Banner type tow targets are used for training Armed Forces personnel in gun, cannon, rocket, and missile marksmanship. A banner type tow target for such purpose is connected by a tow line of required length to a towing aircraft. The marksman trainee operates from another aircraft miles away. The aircraft bearing the marksman trainee is termed herein a weapon system for convenience, but actually may be any type of aircraft, from a low-powered, low-speed training plane, to a highpowered, high-speed fighter plane.

Prior to the banner type tow target construction set forth in my said application for United States Letters Patent, Serial No. 554,977, now U.S. Patent No. 2,807,287, diiiiculties have been encountered in producing banner type tow targets having a useful life of sutlicient length to minimize the cost of each training mission, and which are otherwise satisfactory, even at relatively low altitudes and low speeds of tow target travel. Y

Prior banner type tow targets have been made of various types of open mesh flexible fabric material and have been upwards of nine (9) feet wide by forty-five (45) feet long. The forward end of the target may be termed the leading edge, and is connected by a hitch to the reareend of the tow line. The rear end of the tow target may be termed the trailing edge.

@In use, the forward portion of a banner type tow target assumes a more or less flat horizontal position which extends to as much as one-third (1A) of the total length of the target. The middle portion of the target, which may extend another one-third (lf3) of the total length of f the target, assumes a condition of rippling in undulating waves having peaks and valleys which extend transversely of the direction of flight. The rear portion of the target, which may extend the finalone-third (1/3) of the total length of the target, assumes a condition of whipping or apping, which is very damaging to the material of the target in this whipping portion of the target.

'I'he ditliculties encountered in prior banner type tow target constructions include the following:

First: -For the purpose of minimizing the power re-V quired in the towing airplane, it is desirable to minimize the total drag of the target. A target made of material having a weight suliicient to reduce rippling and whipping to a satisfactory degree, has a drag which becomes prohibitive,

Second: As the speed of the tow target is Vincreased for training marksmen operating from the -higher speed weapon systems, the greater the increase in target speed, the greater theA drag created by the undesirable rippling and whipping of the target.

Third: (1) A high' speed weapon system is manui P l CC 2 Y ally or automatically controlled until contact is made with the target, then a radar operated electronic control system locks on the target, and operates the weapon system, until the target has been fired on, or passed by. Personnel operating a weapon system must be trained in carrying out the weapon system objective. (2) Tow targets of prior construction frequently have been made of materials having'no radar reecting properties. To overcome this, radar reflecting corners have been attached to the forward end of such targets, with results that have not been satisfactory. Corner reliectors create greatly increased drag on the tow airplane, and have limiting factors undesirably affecting present radar and tire control systems. (3)` Prior banner type tow targets which have been made ofy metallized fabrics have been excessive in weight and drag, and have been subject to operational objections similar to those incident to the use of radar reflecting corners.

Banner type tow targets including the improvements set forth in my said prior application for United States Letters Patent, Serial No. 554,977, ily satisfactorily at a true air speed of 385 miles per hour at altitudes as high as 30,000 feet.

Requirements of the Armed Forces for 1956 and thereafter, specify a banner type tow target which will ily at altitudes of 30,000 feet and upwards, at indicated air speeds of 250 knots per hour and upwards, with the vrequired durability and low drag characteristics; and such a tow target must be made of material that is radar reflective. s

The objects of the present invention include the provision of a banner type tow target including certain of the improvements of my said prior application for United States Letters Patent, Serial No. 554,977, and including other improvements enabling the tow target to meet the requirements of the Armed -Forces for 1956 and thereafter, as `above set forth. e

A further object of the present invention is the provision of such a banner type tow target which may be made of differential weave open woven fabric in vcontinuous lengths without cross-seams. Y

A further object of the present invention is the provision of such a banner type tow target made of woven fabric, and which is metallized in a manner so as to produce a target which has the desired radar reliectivity and is still within required weight and dragl limitations.

The foregoing and other objects are attained by the banner type tow target construction, parts, combinations, and sub-combinations, which comprise the present invention or discovery, the nature of which is set forth in the following general statement, and preferred embodiments of which, together with their mode of use, are set forth by way of example in the following description, and which are particularly and distinctly pointed out and set forth in the appended claims forming part hereof.

The nature of lthe improvements of the present invention may be described in general terms as constituting tow tagetconstruction including side by side seam connected continuous liexible panels, each panel including longitudinally extending laterally spaced warp strands and longitudinally spaced filling strands continuously woven with the warp strands.

Each warp strand is monolament. The filling strands in one end portion or section of the continuous panel are are alternate sets of monoiilament filling strands, -and alternate sets of multi-filament filling strands. Thus, each panel constitutes a diferentialweave continuous open woven fabric panel including `one panel portion .or section having monoflament warpy strands and monolilaf ment filling strands, and another panel portion or section.

l Y Y 3 having monolament warp strands and alternate sets Yof: monolament lling strandsand alternate sets of multilament filling strands. Preferably the warp strands are `arranged invnarrowerzsidebands-and a'centerband and wider bandsdbetween eachv side band andthe center band, and the warp-strands in the narrower bands -including pairs adjacent each other and forming a smaller mesh weave thantheweave of the wider bands.

By way of example, embodimentsof .the improved banner Vtype tow'target construction and parts of ythe present invention are illustrated inthe accompanying drawings formingpart hereof, in which :Fig 1 is a reduced planview, diagrammatic .in part, showing a banner type tow-target including the improved differential weavefabric ofthe present invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged-fragmentaryplan View showing a detached area of the first leading portion or section of the improved bannertype Atow target, the rst'leading target portion or section having a irstwoven fabric construction.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary plan view showingl a detached area of the secondtrailing portion or section of the improved banner type .tow target, the second trailing target portion or section'having a second woven fabric construction.

Fig. 4 is a reduced fragmentary diagrammatic plan View of a length of a panel of the improved fabric for the improved bannerV type tow target showing the trans.-Y verse continuous junction between the -rst and second target portions or sections, and other details.

Fig. 5 is Yan enlarged k,fragmentary plan view showing -a detached Varea of the transverse continuous-junction between the rfirst and second target portions or sections, and areas of the rst and second target portions adjacent the junction.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views ofthe drawings.

The banner type tow target shown in Fig. 1 is indicated generally by V10, and constitutes a preferred embodiment of the present invention or discovery.

The 4tow target 10 is made of a single ply of improved flexible open mesh differential weave fabric hereinafter described in detail, and is an elongated rectangle of such fabric which may have a width of nine (-9) feet and a length of from thirty (30) to forty-ve (45) feet in certain targets.

The elongated rectangular tow target includes a leading edge 11, a trailing edge 12, and transversely spaced side edges 13 and 14. A hitch 1S connects `the leading edge 11 in a usual manner with the trailing end of a tow line, not shown, which extends for a mile, more or less, from `a usual towing aircraft, not shown.

The tow target 10 is constituted, from the over-all standpoint, by a iirst leading target portion or section 16 having a transverse junction indicated by the dot-dash line 17 with a second trailing Vtarget portion or section 18.

As shown, the tow target 10, divided over-al1 into the first and second portions or sections 16 and 18, is made of three continuous longitudinally extending fabric panels including a side panel 19 having the outer Vside edge 13, 4and at its other edge an Iinside connecting seam S-1 with one edge of acenter panel 20. The other edge of the center panel 20 has Yan inside connecting seam S-Z with a sidepanel 21 which has the outer side edge 14. M

First: Each of the three panels 19, 20, and 21, inthe irstleading target portion or section 16, is constituted throughout thev major portion of its area, by a irst woven fabric construction indicated generally -by 22, and shown enlarged in Fig. 2.

Second: Each of the Vthree panels 19,'20, and 21, inv

the'second trailing target portionor section 18 is constituted throughout the majorgportion of its area, by a second woven fabric construction indicated generallyby Z3, and shownenlarged in Fig. 3,

In each `panel Y19, v20, or 21, eachof therst and second woven fabric constructions 2,2 and 23 has adifferent weave structure than the other, constituted by common warp strands 24a and 24h, and bydiiferent filling strands.

The rst woven fabric construction 22 in any panel such as 19- includes a continuous :filling strand 25 and a continuous filling strand 26. The diameter of the strand 25 is less than the diameter of the'strand 26. i

The second woven fabric construction 2.3 in the panel 19, includes a continuous lling'strand 27 havingA afdiameter which is the'least diameter of any filling strand in the entire panel. The diameter of the strand 27 may c kbe thel same as the diameter of the strand Z5, and the strand 2-7 preferably is continuous with the strand 25.

A fragment of one of the panels of the target 10, such as the panel 19, is shown diagrammatically in Fig. 4, at the transverse continuous junction between the rst target portion or section 16' and the second targetportion or section 18. In this diagrammatic view, Where the filling strands 25 and 27,A are shown, the warp strands are removed, to more clearly illustrate the continuity of the filling strands.

At opposite ends of Fig. 4, the filling strands arevremoved, and each set of warp strands 24a and 24b `is indicated by a single line. Warp reinforcingis provided in side bands 28 and 29 and center band 30, byfproviding pairs of sets of warp strands 24a and 2411 at'the side of each of the fabric openings, instead of the single Vsets of warp Vstrands in the wide band 31 between the reinforced bands 28 and 30, and in the wide band vSZ-between the reinforced 'bands 30 and i9.

From a broad standpoint, each of the target portions 16 and 18 may be otherwise described as being constituted by open mesh woven yarn fabric.

Yarn may be furthermore defined as being either a mono-ilament strand or a multi-filament strand, multilament strand yarn being spun.

In open mesh woven yarn fabric, in general for use on'banner type tow targets, the yarn may be constituted by filaments of fibres or combinations of filaments and/or libres of any desired material or materials. Preferably the laments or iibres are constituted by synthetic materials such as nylon, Orlon, and the like.

In the present improved minimized drag banner type tow target construction, nylon is a preferred material constituting the fabric yarn or strands. The warp strands 24a and 24h and the lling strands 25 and 27 are monolament and preferably are 260 `denier 4 ply spun nylon yarn.

Side-by-side pairs of the monofilament lling strands 25 alternate with side-by-side pairs of the multi-filament strands 26 in the first leading target portion or section 18.

The second trailing portion or section 18 has a length range of from one-sixth (1/6) to one-third (1A) the total length of the target 10.

The improved banner type tow target `10 Will y at ann altitude of 30,000 feet and upwards, and at a speed of 250 knots per hour and upwards, indicated air speed, with required durability, low drag, and other characteristics including maximum flexibility at extremely ylow temperatures, and: ability to be made radar reflective.

Nylon yarnas above -described in the fabricof the improved banner type tow target 10, has a full 2N lenoA weave, and provides the desired dimensional stability and exing capacity lin operation as above described under temperature extremes `of from 65 P. to +165 4F.

The improved tow target 10 furthermore may'haverall or any portion metallized to provide a radar reflecting target. v

Whether the tow target 10' is metallized, or not, it 'is desirable to lubricate the target withra lpreparation to provide in the target maximurnexing capability, and increased resistance torips and,tears.- H 1 fait" Iclaim:

1. A one-piece woven fabric panel for a banner type tow target and the like, the panel including a rst portion and a second portion adjacent the tirst portion, each panel portion having opposite ends vand one end of the rst panel portion making a junction with one end of the second panel portion, the panel including a plurality of laterally spaced longitudinally extending warp strands, eac-h warp strand extending the entire length of the rst and second portions of the panel, the rst panel portion having morno-lilamentvlilling strands and multiilament lling strands, and ythe second panel portion having mono-filament filling strands; the lling strands being longitudinally spaced from each other in the direction of the warp strands; and the mono-filament lling strands being continuous with each other.

2. A one-piece woven fabric panel for a bannervtype tow target and the like, the panel including a rst portion and a second portion adjacent the first portion, each panel portion having opposite ends and one end of the rst panel portion making a junction with one end of the second panel portion, the panel including a plurality of laterally spaced longitudinally extending warp strands, each warp strand extending the entire length of the first and second portions of the panel, the first panel portion having mono-lament filling strands and multi-filament tilling strands, and the second panel portion having monolament filling strands; the filling strands being longitudinally spaced from each other in the direction of the warp strands; and the multi-lilament filling strands being continuous with each other.

3. A one-piece woven fabric panelfor a banner type tow target and the like, the panel including a rst portion ,and a second portion adjacent the first portion, each vbeing continuous witheach other; and the multi-lament filling strands being continuous with each other.

References Cited inthe le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,238,875 Manson Apr. 15, 1941 2,298,071 Smith Oct. 6, 1942 2,360,245 McFarlane Oct. 10, 1944 2,511,644 Liss June 13, 1950 2,731,046 ABaohner Jan. 17, 1956 2,757,455 Bihaly Aug. 7. 1956 Y FOREIGN PATENTS 132,183

Germany Iuly 14, 1902

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