Patent GB-442571-A (GB)
Title: Course regulator for torpedoes, aerial and other vehicles provided with a gyroscopic course director
IPC: F42B19/06
Filed: 1934-12-12
Abstract: 442,571. Fluid-pressure servomotor-control systems. SILURIFICIO WHITEHEAD DI FIUME SOC. ANON., Fiume, Italy. Dec. 12, 1934, No. 35713. Convention date, Dec. 12, 1933. [Class 135] A course regulator for torpedoes, aircraft, seagoing vehicles, &c. has a stop device 16 which restrains the movement of the normal rudder-control mechanism 8, 12 influenced by a gyroscopic director x when deviations exceed a predetermined amplitude or duration, after the torpedo or other body has been brought to a course parallel with its line of launching, such restraining action persisting for a period dependent on that which has been necessary to return the torpedo to the parallel course. Means are provided to compensate for the effect on the steering of the well-known transverse list of torpedoes at launching. The precessional movement of the vertical gimbal ring 52, through a link 7, operates the control valve 6 of a servomotor piston 5 which actuates the vertical rudder by means of a lever 8 and rod 12. A crank-pin 3 mounted eccentrically with respect to the axis 1 of the ring 52 is connected by a linkage 34, 36 with the control valve 32 of a second servomotor, the piston 30 of which reciprocates a freely mounted shaft 29 by means of a bell-crank 40. A roller 28 carried by the shaft 29 engages two toothed friction discs 27 driven continuously by a motor 26 through a bevel pinion 46. A pinion 22 splined on the shaft 29 drives a further pinion 21 the hub 21<1> of which has a screw connection with a non-rotatable rod 20. A finger 23 on the rod 20 engages a notch 25<1> in a rocker 25 provided with wings 24 to receive the finger when it leaves the notch. An arm 44 rotating with the rocker about the pivot 25<11> operates the control valve 19 of a third servomotor, the piston 18 of which drives the stop quadrant 16 by the rack-andpinion device 14, 15. The lever 8 has a yokelike extension 11 carrying adjustable screws 13. The lever 8 is not interfered with by the stop 16 for small or brief movements of the ring 52. Movements above a predetermined amplitude or duration however cause rotation of the roller 28 which moves along the vertical diameters of the discs 27 proportionately to the amplitude of the movement. The quadrant 16 is then moved quickly towards that screw 13 which has moved away from the pinion 15, and the finger 23 after moving the rocker 25 to the maximum extent moves out along one of the wings 24. The quadrant 16 holds the rudder in its adjusted position after the torpedo has come to a parallel course and the ring 52 is again in the position shown. Movement of the torpedo towards and across the line of launching continues until the ring 52 has been turned in the opposite direction long enough for the screw-and-nut device 20, 21<1> to bring the finger 23 back to the notch 25<1> and the rocker to the position shown, whereupon the rudder can swing over to the position governed by the ring 52. To compensate for the effect of the transverse list, the rudder is caused to be tilted for longer periods for deviations to the right than for those to the left by arranging the crank-pin 3 on a radius inclined to the plane through the axis 1 normal to the rotor axis A-A, in the normal position shown and by providing means for adjusting the pivot 50 of a third link 33 in the linkage 33, 34, 36. The servomotors and the motor 26 receive pressure fluid from a pipe 39. Instead of the linkage 33, 34, 36, independent means for each sense of deviation may operate on the valve 32 by thrust only.