Patent GB-560875-A (GB)
Title: Bombing mechanism for aircraft
IPC: B64D1/04
Filed: 1942-10-20
Abstract: 560,875. Driving gear for aircraft; bombing from the air. WINTERS, D. L. Oct. 20, 1942, No. 14718. [Class 4] [Also in Group XXI] Aircraft bombs are provided with means to modify their trajectories and such means are adapted to be adjusted either automatically or by hand, and the extent of adjustment as well as the release of the bombs is controlled from a sighting arrangement arranged in the aeroplane. Eaeh bomb 27 is provided with a tail cylinder 30 enclosing a flap 35 normally disposed parallel to the axis of the cylinder, but adapted to be turned about an axis 34 to obstruct the passage of air through the cylinder during; the fall of the bomb and thus to alter the trajectory of the bomb. Each axle 34 is supported at one. end 40 in a socket 44 fixed to the frame of the machine, a spring 47 being interposed between the base of the socket and the end of the axle the other end of the axle is supported in a socket member 45 which constitutes the core of a solenoid 50 and is splined to a gear wheel 52 so as to rotate therewith and yet be capable of endwise movement, a spring 54 being interposed between the end of the socket member and the end of the solenoid. Each flap is locked in adjusted position by means of a toothed plate 36 on the shaft 34 and fixed dogs 37 on the tail cylinder and the gears 52 are adapted to be rotated through worm gearing 75 on a shaft 76 which is driven through an electrically-operated clutch 96 and chain and toothed gearing 80 from the propeller shaft; 12 of the aeroplane. A sighting instrument 85 is pivoted near the pilot's seat on a gyroscopic stabilizing device 88 which maintains the support 87 in a substantially vertical position and movement of the sighting device is adapted to complete a circuit from a battery 68 and switch 93 through the clutch 96 so that the setting gears for the brake flaps are automatically actuated ; an arm 55 on one spur wheel is caused to contact, with stops 57-61 on a fixed plate 55a to cause the completion of the circuits through the solenoids 50 whereby the socket members 45 are retracted and the ends of the cross shafts 34 on the bombs released so that the bombs are freed, with the braking flaps retained in adjusted positions by the dogs 37 and toothed discs 36. In a modification for hand setting, the shaft 34 of each flap at one end is mounted in a socket member 45a splined to a spur wheel and under continual pressure for release by a spring 54a ; all the spur wheels 100 are adapted to be rotated by a common rack 103 pressed downwardly by wheels 104 on shafts 105 the rack being operable through an adjustable connection 116, 117 from the sighting instrument 85. Adjustably fixed to each spur wheel is a spring retracted lever 110 which can be hand set by the pilot, and as the spur wheels are rotated the ends of these levers are actuated by the projecting ends of the shafts 105 to free the socket shafts 45a and so release the bombs, the flaps having been set to the required positions by rotation of the shaft 34 by the spur wheels. The speed of the aircraft with respect to the ground is maintained constant by means of variable pitch propellers 10, 11 driven by a shaft 12 from engines 16 through gearing 14 and the sighting device is preadjusted for the constant altitude maintained by the aircraft during the bombing run. Heat from the engine units is conveyed through insulated conduits 19 leading to a chamber 20 in the aerofoil to prevent icing.