Abstract: A conformable self-healing ballistic armor protective structure has a shell formed of a laminated cloth material having outer and inner lamellae. The outer lamella of the laminated material is a ballistic cloth and the inner lamella is a soft, conformable self-healing, rubber compound. The shell is filled preferably with multiplicity of ceramic particles disposed in a fluid.

Abstract: A conformable self-healing ballistic armor protective structure has a shell formed of a laminated cloth material having outer and inner lamellae. The outer lamella of the laminated material is a ballistic cloth and the inner lamella is a soft, conformable self-healing, rubber compound. The shell is filled preferably with multiplicity of ceramic particles disposed in a fluid.

Abstract: A conformable self-healing ballistic armor protective structure has a shell formed of a laminated cloth material having outer and inner lamellae. The outer lamella of the laminated material is a ballistic cloth and the inner lamella is a soft, conformable self-healing, rubber compound. The shell is filled preferably with multiplicity of ceramic particles disposed in a fluid.

Abstract: A conformable self-healing ballistic armor protective structure has a shell formed of a laminated cloth material having outer and inner lamellae. The outer lamella of the laminated material is a ballistic cloth and the inner lamella is a soft, conformable self-healing, rubber compound. The shell is filled preferably with multiplicity of ceramic particles disposed in a fluid.

Abstract: A mechanism for retrofitting a turret that has a manual rotation system with a motorized turret rotation system includes a gear box mechanically coupled to the turret, an electrically powered prime mover unit mechanically coupled to the gear box, a user operated control device electrically coupled to the prime mover unit, and an electrical power supply electrically coupled to the prime mover unit. The turret rotates relative to a body structure. The gear box and the prime mover unit are mounted to the body structure. The control device and the electrical power supply are positioned on the turret. The power supply provides electrical power to the prime mover. The control device presents a control signal to the prime mover when the user actuates the control device, and the turret rotates in response to the control signal.

Abstract: A mechanism for testing electrical components in an ignition system of a diesel engine includes a metal jacket having receptacles passing through the jacket and also includes glow plugs fitting in the receptacles. The jacket has an inlet to admit water or other fluid from a pressurized source and also has an outlet to permit the fluid to escape from the jacket. The fluid flows through the jacket and thereby cools the receptacles, jacket and glow plugs. The testing mechanism includes a valve for metering the rate of flow of fluid into the jacket, the rate of flow being kept at a rate sufficient to prevent the jacket's temperature from exceeding a predetermined level. The glow plugs are connected to an electrical power source such as a battery, and a control circuit connected to the electrical power source and the plugs governs the cycle during which the plugs are electrically heated and then permitted to cool.

Abstract: A starting controller for a diesel engine. The controller has a microprocor that will provide a current to the glow plugs until they are heated to the desired operating temperature and will then distribute sequential pulses to the individual plugs until the engine reaches the desired operating temperature. The system can have a latching circuit that will prevent the preglow cycle from being reinitiated until the glow plugs have been allowed to cool to a level where reinitiation will not represent a substantial degrading effect on the glow plugs.

Abstract: An adjustable test stand for holding ballistic samples during testing, the est stand having trusses carrying specimen holding members the trusses having curved arms which cooperate with the specimen holders to hold the specimens at various angles of incidence relative to the vertical to allow testing over a variety of incident angles.

Abstract: A low visibility interior armor construction for a door of an automotive icle is removably installed in the vehicle without structural change to the vehicle. The construction has a door panel armor component facing an inboard side of the door and a compressible pad between the inboard side of the door and the armor component. The armor component has hooks by which it hangs on the door. The armor component is tightened to the door by tensionable straps connected between the door and the armor component. The construction also has a plate of window armor alongside the door's window frame and a transparent frame forms a channel about a periphery of the plate. The frame is comprised of continuous polygonal bands forming side walls of the channel. Beds of the channel are recessed between the polygonal bands such that the transparent frame defines a continuous surface facing outboard of the vehicle. A transparent flange connects the door armor component to the transparent frame.

Abstract: A system for clearing anti-personnel mines includes a vehicle, a blast shd on the front of the vehicle, and arms pivoted to the blast shield. A roller wheel subassembly is connected to the arms by cables or chains. Cross members fastened diagonally between the arms minimize side to side swing of the arms on the blast shield while allowing the arms to swing up and down relative to each other. The vehicle has a boom for lifting the arms and roller wheel subassembly. The arms connect to the boom by another chain or cable that slides through an eye on the boom so that the chain or cable accommodates relative vertical swing of the arms. The roller wheel subassembly has an axle and roller wheels on the axle, the inner diameter of the roller wheels being greater than the axle's diameter. Annular spacers on the axle alternate with the wheels, the spacer diameters being larger than the wheels' inner diameters but smaller than the wheels' outer diameters.

Abstract: A retrofit mechanism adapts a pre-existing manually steered vehicle for b manual and powered remote steering control. The mechanism's steering control subassembly mounts to a bridge of a rigid adaptor assembly fixed to the vehicle's frame. A control subassembly post passes rotatably through a web of the adaptor's bridge. The post is rotated by a motorized steering actuator mounted to a side of the bridge. A symmetric wing fixed to the post pivotally connects with two rods, which themselves pivotally connect an adapter element on the steering column. The rods lie on opposite sides of, and equidistantly from, a line extending from the central axis to the steering column axis. The wing, rods and adapter element cooperate to achieve nonbinding rotation of the vehicle's steering column within a sleeve surounding the column.

Abstract: A manual braking mechanism is adapted for manually overridable remote conl. The mechanism is disposed in a generally planar region forward of a vehicle's handle bar that does not interfere with the vehicle body or a human vehicle driver. The mechanism includes a base plate releasably clamped to the vehicle's handle bar and a housing fixed on the base plate. A brake cylinder in the housing connects to a control lever swingable on the base plate about a lever axis, and the cylinder's reaction force biases the lever toward a brake releasing position. A link pivots on the plate at the lever axis, has a hinge connection remote from the lever axis and has a carrier closer to the lever axis to the hinge connection. The carrier cammingly rotates the lever as the link swings on the lever axis. The mechanism has a frame whose first leg connects to the base plate at the lever axis and the frame's second leg is releasably clamped to the handle bar.

Abstract: An adapter mechanism converts a manual throttle control to a powered manuy overidable throttle control. The manual control has a housing element, a post rotatable in the housing element and a control lever connected to the post. A first rotor plate engaged by the lever swings on the post to rotate a second rotor plate in one direction so as to translate a cable. The manual control has a return spring biassing the second plate in another direction toward a position where the cable closes the throttle. The adapter mechanism has a block-like cap on the housing element and the cap has a cavity open to the housing element. An actuator motor on the cap rotates a paddle in the first and second directions. A flange of the paddle engages a tab of the first rotor plate such that the paddle's rotation in the first direction moves the rotor elements but the paddle's rotation in the second direction exerts no force on the rotor elements.

Abstract: An igniter for an exothermic lance has an inner peripheral wall about the lance, the inner peripheral wall defining dual purpose teeth for centering the lance relative to the igniter and holding various lances of differing diameters. The teeth space the inner wall from the lance so as to form a flue between the inner wall and the lance. Outside the inner peripheral wall and concentric therewith is an outer peripheral wall thicker than the inner wall. A flammable substance is between the inner and outer walls, the flammable substance being more rapidly combustible than the inner wall and outer walls. A match head element at the fore end of the igniter is the mechanism to initiate combustion of the flammable substance, which can be a Thermit mixture. A gap between the match head element and the lance allows oxygen from the lance to enter the flue and accelerate lance ignition.

Abstract: A nonlinear shock absorber is disclosed. The device has a housing filled with hydraulic fluid and contains a relatively heavy mass or piston supported by a helical coil. The helical coils disposed and shaped so as to provide a nonlinear resistance to a shock applied to the housing. During shock absorption fluid flows contra to the piston movement with a corresponding elongation of the helical coil spring causing the coil spring to engage an inner wall of the housing to provide for frictional dampening.

Abstract: Applicant's device improves rapidly firing guns. When such a gun fires, applicant's device delays departure of the gun bolt from the chamber or barrel zone holding a spent round's casing until barrel pressure drops to a safe level. The device has a hollow piston which is translatable fore and aft along the barrel and which has an orifice communicated to a duct from an inner barrel diameter to an outer barrel diameter. The duct slants forward toward the gun muzzle in a radially outward direction so as to direct expanding propellant gas from the barrel against a forward internal surface of the piston. Momentum of the gas keeps the piston in its most forward position and the piston solidly connects to the bolt so that the bolt stays at the chamber when the piston is pressurized.

Abstract: Disclosed is a launch element seater for repeatably placing projectiles or ther launch package elements at an exact location within a breech of a gun. The seater includes a tube closely fit and slidable in the breech and a plate for precisely locating the tube on the breech, the plate encircling the tube and opposing a reference surface on the breech. An internally threaded terminus of the tube threads with a rod entering the tube, and the rod joins a seat member fit closely and slidably in the breech. A positionable set nut threaded on the rod outside the tube locates the innermost position of the rod relative to the tube and thereby locates the seat member and a projectile engaged thereto within the breech.

Abstract: Disclosed is a projectile that has high velocity at short range. The projectile has a body of material that is lighter, more lubricous and more deformable than a partial Jacket on the rearward portion of the projectile. The jacket defines an annular array of apertures on the outer diametrical surface of the jacket and the body has peripheral zones that extend into the apertures far enough to be flush with the outer diametrical surface. The peripheral zones not only provide a physical lock between the body and jacket but also lubricate the interface between the projectile and the gun barrel along which the projectile travels during firing of a gun. The apertures are configured to allow the body to erupt radially outward through the jacket's side wall and form a relatively wide, shallow dispersal pattern when the projectile impacts a target. An optional core within the plastic body enhances the body's radially outward dispersal upon the projectile's impact with a target.

Abstract: Disclosed is a flash suppressor for guns which controlledly vents ignited high pressure gas exiting a gun muzzle. The gas is vented essentially radially outward through coils or rings of the suppressor in a 360 flow degree pattern away from a longitudinal axis of the suppressor.

Abstract: Disclosed is a projectile that has high velocity at short range. The projectile has a body of material that is lighter, more lubricous and more deformable than a partial jacket on the rearward portion of the projectile. The jacket defines an annular array of apertures on the outer diametrical surface of the jacket and the body has peripheral zones that extend into the apertures far enough to be flush with the outer diametrical surface. The peripheral zones not only provide a physical lock between the body and jacket but also lubricate the interface between the projectile and the gun barrel along which the projectile travels during firing of a gun. The apertures are configured to allow the body to erupt radially outward through the jacket's side wall and form a relatively wide, shallow dispersal pattern when the projectile impacts a target. An optional core within the plastic body enhances the body's radially outward dispersal upon the projectile's impact with a target.