Abstract: An antenna structure in which two or more microstrip arrays are disposed on op of each other to minimize the required space. The shape of the microstrip elements and the polarization thereof are chosen so that the individual elements radiate only in specific areas along the edges of the elements with the remainder of the element having no appreciable electric field concentration. Because of the operating frequency of a microstrip element is a function of the size of the element, a second antenna of smaller higher-frequency elements may be disposed over a larger lower-frequency antenna such that the higher frequency antenna does not cover the areas of the lower antenna that radiate but lies over only those areas having no appreciable electric fields concentrations. Increasingly higher-frequency antennas can be placed on top of the lower-frequency antennas if the foregoing conditions are maintained with respect to all of the covered antennas.

Abstract: A microstrip antenna having approximately an octave bandwidth comprises a planar radiating element disposed approximately coplanar with and in front of an upper ground plane and spaced above a lower ground plane at a distance equal to approximately one-tenth wavelength at the lowest operating frequency (one-quarter wavelength at the upper operating frequency). A thin dielectric layer is disposed on top of the upper ground plane which is coupled to the lower ground plane. The antenna, which is linearly polarized, is fed from the rear by a launcher that is approximately coplanar with the radiating element and mounted above the dielectric layer. Impedance matching means are provided for improved performance.

Abstract: A remote transmitter system including a control station and a remote trantter station. The control station includes a variable frequency oscillator, a modulator, a parallel to series digital data converter and a DC power supply. The remote transmitter station comprises a power storage circuit, a phase-locked-loop demodulator, a local oscillator, a modulator and a power amplifier. The variable frequency oscillator provides two signals f.sub.o and f.sub.1 that are harmonics of each other and are in-phase. These signals modulate the 0's and 1's of digital data that is transmitted along a coaxial cable to the phase-locked-loop demodulator that provides a control signal to the local oscillator and the modulated digital data signal (f.sub.o, f.sub.1) to the modulator. The local oscillator generates two signals f.sub.A and f.sub.B, that have a predetermined phase and/or frequency relationship to f.sub.o and f.sub.1. The f.sub.o and f.sub.1 signals are detected and applied to the modulator as a control signal (D.sub.

Abstract: In a thrust vector control system of the type in which a solid-propellant s generator powers a turbine-driven pump for driving hydraulic actuators for controlling the direction of thrust, the improvement being a feed back control system in which a variable-area gas valve is disposed inline between the gas generator and the turbine. The turbine speed is fed back to an electronic controller where it is compared with a commanded turbine speed. The controller applies forward-loop compensation to provide a signal that adjusts the area of the gas valve to control the operating pressure of the gas generator to drive the turbine speed to the commanded value.

Abstract: A bridge crane for use in a shipboard environment consisting of a machinery arrying body having a bolt-on hoist rail. The ends of the machinery carrying body form trucks housing support wheels for suspending the crane from overhead rails. The traversing system is disposed in the machinery body and consists of an air motor coupled to drive pinions which engage a gear rack on each overhead rail. The traversing systems and a pneumatically powered hose reel for holding an air hose for a pneumatically powered hoist are powered from a central air supply through a pneumatic control circuit.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for spraying molten metal that is light weight, requires low maintenance and is quick and simple to operate. A feed system is provided that uses an electric motor and control system to push the electrodes to the head and to prevent system failure, by temporarily stopping the feed, upon the occurrence of the feed wires becoming shorted or welded together. A portable head is provided that employs parallel lead guides that allows complete head manipulation without electrode mismatch. An atomizing gas nozzle is also provided that permits lower air pressure and compensates for arc wander. A lead system is provided that combines into one lead the feed wire guides, current leads and the atomizing gas. The atomizing gas also becomes a coolant allowing lighter current leads for arc metal spraying.

Abstract: A hydraulically actuated fast action gate valve for gating highly viscous uids in a salt water environment includes front and back plates having openings for connection to conduits containing the viscous fluid and a center plate having a slot for receiving a slidable gate that includes an optional check valve. A gate is positioned within the slot and includes upper and lower grooves that provide rapid equalization of pressure of the viscous fluid between the opposite ends of the gate when the gate is rapidly actuated. One end of the gate is connected by a locking pin to an actuating rod that is driven by a hydraulic cylinder that is mounted external to the valve. The front and back plates have opposing passages allowing the actuating rod to be secured to the gate so that the hydraulic cylinder may be removed. An optional opening is provided in the back plate to permit the introduction of a non-gated fluid into piping contained within the inlet conduit.

Abstract: A socket wire connector for effecting a high-voltage, gas-tight joint betn an electrical wire and the connector. The socket side of the connector has a hemispherical portion soldered to one side of an electrical breadboard with a tapered, slotted cylindrical piece extending through the breadboard. An electrical wire may be inserted in the socket portion and the cap nut portion of the connector screwed onto the cylindrical piece to form a high-voltage gas-tight joint.

Abstract: Rail interlocking and hoist stop apparatus for material handling systems of he type wherein a hoist travels between a movable rail and a stationary rail comprising a master stop assembly located on the movable rail and a slave stop assembly located on the stationary rail. The apparatus is manually actuated through a mechanical linkage which pushes a master pin in the master stop assembly toward the slave stop assembly. If the rails are in proper alignment, the end of the master pin is inserted into a bore in the slave assembly where it displaces a slave pin. The movement of the slave pin causes a crossover pin in the slave assembly to be partially inserted into a bore in the master assembly where it displaces a locking pin. The movement of the slave pin and the crossover pin in the slave assembly is rigidly coupled to stop pins located in the slave assembly and which are disposed in the path of the hoist when the stop system is unactuated.

Abstract: Apparatus for seating a very small socket contact in an electrical connector from the front side of the connector. Opposing flexible fingers, which are disposed above and below a flat wedge member and separated thereby, are extended longitudinally by plunger action beyond the wedge member which is fixed relative to the tool housing. The opposing fingers have a bend which causes their ends to come together when the fingers are extended relative to the wedge. The extended fingers and the wedge may freely be inserted into an individual socket contact from the front of the connector. Retraction of the fingers by spring bias causes the wedge to separate the ends of fingers so that knuckles at the ends of the fingers internally grasp the socket contact which may then be pulled for proper seating.

Abstract: A sphere with a hole through one diameter is held in a spherical chamber hin a tube. The axis of the tube and the hole through the sphere are out of alignment by some predetermined angle, .theta.. The sphere is held within the chamber and the entire unit is caused to spin. The sphere is released while the unit is still spinning. The gyroscopic nutation of the sphere causes the spherical bore to traverse the angle .theta. and align with the tubular bore in a time dependent upon the sliding friction between the material of the sphere and the material of the spherical chamber.

Abstract: A device is described using at least one polyconductor film as an active ment lens of an electrical circuit for detecting incident laser radiation. In several alternative embodiments, a polyconductor film is located at the focal point of at least one lens which focuses the incident laser radiation on the film. The polyconducting film acts as a variable resistor of a balanced bridge network and upon receipt of radiation causes an imbalance in the bridge for radiation detection. The film changes phase with increasing incident power such that it protects itself against high levels of radiation. The lenses can also be polyconducting films and another film shielded from the radiation may be included to compensate for temperature fluctuations and maintain circuit sensitivity.

Abstract: A battery scanning system which is capable of monitoring and displaying the oltage of each cell in a battery or upon command provides the cell voltage distribution by displaying the cell number and voltage value of highest and lowest cell. The system has a digital logic system, display, input switches for operator generated variables, an alarm, relays, relay selection gates, an optically coupled isolation amplifier, power source and an analog-digital converter. The optically coupled analog amplifier electrically isolates the system from the battery so that large voltage offsets will not adversely affect the automatic measuring of the cells.

Abstract: A novel technique for fabrication of a new class of surface acoustic wave (SAW) signal processing devices. Substrates of non-piezoelectric silicon or weakly piezoelectric gallium arsenide are prepared and a thin film of a piezoelectric material, such as zinc oxide, is deposited on the substrate. Interdigital transducers are fabricated at each end of the device to inject/receive SAW signals. A row of P-N diodes is constructed in the substrate underneath the SAW beam path and a metal electrode is deposited on top of the zinc oxide film. The diodes may be serially addressed/controlled by a variety of devices external to the SAW beam path, but fabricated on the same substrate and the new device used to provide transformation between high-frequency signals and low-frequency signals having the same time-bandwidth product.

Abstract: Apparatus for inplace refinishing of the annular seating surfaces in top ded ball valves which comprises a locating ring adapted to be mounted on the top surface of the valve housing. An alignment gage is provided for precisely positioning the locating ring. A cutting apparatus is mounted on the precisely positioned locating ring. The cutting apparatus includes a carriage plate for mounting on the locating ring, channel-forming means mounted on the carriage plate and a cutting tool having a housing adapted to side in the channels and having a cutting head oriented to cut the seating surface at the desired angle.

Abstract: A modulation/signal processing technique for acoustic communication in show water. Digital information is transmitted in a time expended version of frequency shift keying where a tone burst at a first frequency represents a logical zero and a tone burst at a second frequency represents a logical one. There is a long quiet time between bits to allow multipath interference to decay. A relative energy detector with a fast attack/slow decay circuit for Doppler compensation is used to receive the transmitted tone bursts and reproduce a digital data train equivalent to the transmitted pulse train. A single communication channel employs two frequencies to transmit an identity code as a signal validating and identification method and two frequencies to simultaneously transmit telemetry data.

Abstract: A method of charging silver electrodes in which an electrode of porous sintered silver is anodized in the conventional manner in alkaline electrolyte to the so-called peroxide level and usually beyond, into the oxygen-evolution level, where the majority of the silver has been electroformed into divalent silver oxide. The charged electrode is then permitted to wet stand in the electrolyte or other alkaline solution to allow the residual unanodized silver in the electrode to convert a portion of the divalent silver oxide to monovalent silver oxide by a reverse disproportionation reaction.

Abstract: An analog adaptive filter for deconvolving distorted signals. A clipped vion of the least mean square algorithm is implemented in a first embodiment by placing an acoustic surface wave storage correlator in a feedback loop and performing an iterative two step process to adjust the weight function of the correlator to make the output of the filter converge to a desired signal. In the first step, the distorted signal is applied to the top plate port of the storage correlator and the filter output from the acoustic port is delayed and subtracted from a training signal to produce an error signal. In the second step, the error signal is applied to the top plate port and the distorted signal is applied to the acoustic port which results in the correlation of the acoustic signal and the plate signal being added to the weight function stored in the storage correlator. The two step process is repeated until the filter output from the plate port converges to an approximation of the training signal.

Abstract: A method of increasing the predictable effectiveness of a ballistic reentry ody having a predicted nominal reentry trajectory. Beginning at reentry or another predetermined location, the distance travelled by said reentry body is calculated based on measured longitudinal acceleration and preset predicted trajectory parameters. When the reentry body reaches a predetermined altitude as measured by an onboard radar, the calculated distance travelled to the altitude is compared with the predicted nominal distance travelled to the altitude to determine the actual trajectory of the reentry body. Based on this actual trajectory, the actual distance travelled from reentry to a preferred fuzing location is determined. When the calculated distance travelled equals the distance required to reach the preferred fuzing location, the fuze signal is sent to the fire set and then to the warhead.

Abstract: The launch mode for a cruise missile utilizes a solid propellant booster ket to propel the missile from the launch platform to a speed and altitude sufficient to enable the missile to transition to the cruise flight mode. Immediately following booster burnout the missile jettisons the booster and transitions to cruise flight by deploying aerodynamic lifting surfaces and starting its cruise engine. The shaped trajectory launch mode significantly reduces the required booster motor impulse by deploying the cruise missile wings during boost flight. The aerodynamic wing lift enables the missile to fly a flatter trajectory reducing performance lost in climb and results in higher booster burnout velocity and significant improvement in launch performance.