GB908963A - Improvements in small-scale gunnery practice apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

908,963. Miniature artillery ranges. BARANOFF, A. V. Feb. 9, 1959 [Feb. 25, 1958], No. 4422/59. Class 119. Apparatus for simulating artillery fire on a small scale comprises a relief map of the target zone, a battery fire device simulating the shots from the guns mounted for pivotal movement at the point of origin of the shots and including a mounting rotatable about a vertical axis, the mounting having a vertical pivot and being actuated by a direction aiming means, a cradle carried on the mounting and arranged for tilting, a sliding carriage on the cradle, a vertically movable beam connected to the carriage and carrying a range slider, mounting elements representing projectiles which contact the map when the carriage and beam are moved to represent the termination of trajectory of the shot and an adjustable frame for supporting the relief map. A horizontal relief map 9 of wire-gauze coated with a smoke-producing paint represents a target area and is housed on a frame 8. The map can be moved along, traversed across, or raised and lowered above a slideway 4 to position it to scale relative to a box 39 rotatable with a support 2 on a fixed base 1 representing a gunbattery position. A telescope sight 18 representing an observation post can be also positioned to scale along an arm 15 rotatable around base 1. Cheek-plates 26 can be elevated to a slope relative to the horizontal equal to the terminal angle appropriate to a chosen gunrange. Sliders 29 on the cheek-plates 26 carry on a pivot the box 39 which has a rod-assembly 30 radiating from it to under the map 9. The assembly 30 comprises guide-rods 25 along which a carriage 31 is adjusted to the scaled mean fall-of-shot range along a worm 32. The carriage supports electrical contacts 37 whose position relative to each other can be adjusted by rods 36 to reproduce any chosen lay-out of a battery of guns at the firing battery position. When a firing lanyard is pulled the sliders 29 move up the cheek-plates 26 so that the heads of the rods 37 move up the terminal trajectory path to contact the wire gauze of the target map and by making electrical contact produce puffs of smoke to represent shell-bursts. Additional movement to include extra dispersion due to random errors is imposed on the heads by motordriven cams (Fig. 11, not shown) connected to the carriage 31. Appropriate hand wheels and measuring scales are provided for the necessary operations. A way of demonstrating air-burst ranging is also described.