Abstract: An improved launching pad for guided missiles used to combat aerial targets, and in particular low-flying aircraft, which is provided with an arrangement for imparting an angular momentum to the missile about its transverse axis and in a direction toward a horizontal plane while the missile is still on the launching pad and accelerating.

Abstract: A shaft mounting apparatus includes, in a preferred embodiment, in addition to a bearing, a resilient ring mounted between the shaft and a surface which is concentric to the shaft. The resilient ring adds additional stiffening to the shaft which shifts the resonant frequency of the shaft to a frequency above the frequency range at which the shaft is to operate.

Abstract: A hydraulic shock absorber for use in a motor vehicle suspension system to reduce dynamic tilting of the vehicle. The shock absorber is of the conventional type having a cylinder, a piston arranged to move within the cylinder between two end stops, and a pressure medium arranged within the cylinder to damp the movement of the piston. A device is provided, according to the invention, for increasing the damping of the piston motion directed away from a particular end stop only after the piston has approached closer to that end stop than is usual during normal operation of the vehicle. The particular end stop, in this case, is the one near which the piston will be located when the associated motor vehicle wheel is unloaded.