GB542701A - Improvements in and relating to means for suspending or towing and releasing or launching objects, for instance, into the slip-stream or wake of an aircraft or marine vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

542,701. Hooks; towing by aircraft etc.; fishing. NASH, A. G. FRAZER-, and LOW, C. B. July 10, 1940, No. 11507. [Class 89 (ii) [Also in Groups VI, XXX and XXXIII] Means for releasing or replacing targets, particularly targets towed by aircraft, have a hooklike catch for retaining a ring to which the target is attached and releasing and resetting means actuated by the passage of a second target and ring along the device. The target is attached to a ring 8, Fig. 1, held by an undercut projection 4 serving as a hook. A number of projections are carried by a rotatable hub 3 in the body 1 of the device which is cylindrical and in halves held together by screws. A toggle 17 normally held just past its dead centre by a spring 18 engages another of the projections 4 to prevent rotation under the drag of the target until the projection is released. Release is affected by the passage of a second ring along the tow line 28 and over the body deflecting a lever 10 linked at 13 to a bell crank with a cam end 15 that breaks the toggle. The body is. rotatably attached through a ball race 20 to an ogival or conical nosepiece to which the tow line is attached by a shock absorber comprising a plunger 29 and spring 30. The nosepiece may be filled with oil and provided with small holes leading to the extension to obtain a dash pot action with the plunger and at the same time lubricate the interior of the device. The arm of the toggle may have a projection extending through a slot in the body to be engaged by the ring to obtain positive resetting and the projections may have extensions 10a, 19a, Fig. 7, further to ensure correct operation. The rear end of the device may be cut away as shown in Fig. 7. When it is only required to release the target, this may be effected by the passage of a weighted ring and the device may be employed where grapnels, anchors, fishing trawls &c. require to be released.