Patent ID: 7150234

Claim:
A finless training projectile disposed within a cartridge that is sized to be fired from a bore of a weapon tube, the projectile comprising: a body including a cylindrical portion; an obturator secured to the body; a nose having a smooth surface, secured to a forward section of the body; a finless tail secured to a rearward section of the body; wherein the tail comprises a generally cylindrical tail piece and a slotted tail flange that is secured to the finless tail; a plurality of radially angled slots formed in the slotted tail flange, wherein the slotted tail flange provides a space within the cartridge for housing a propellant; wherein the cylindrical portion of the body includes an outer diameter that is smaller than an inside diameter of the weapon tube; wherein the obturator provides friction fit between the weapon tube and the body of the projectile, in order to prevent forward thrust gases from escaping from the weapon tube; wherein the plurality of radially angled slots in the slotted tail flange achieve spin after exit from the bore of the weapon tube and during flight of the training projectile, to compensate for aerodynamic and mass asymmetries; and wherein the nose provides increased mass to the nose, in order to move a center of gravity of the projectile further forward, and to allow a center of pressure of the projectile to remain in a constant rearward position relative to the center of gravity during flight, so that a distance between the center of gravity and the center of pressure remains constant throughout a Mach number range encountered during flight, thereby providing improved flight stability over an extended range.