SBIR-STTR Award

Rapid fire high velocity aircraft gun systems have matured to the point where only marginal improvements in system effectiveness, weight reduction, volume reduction, and cost effectiveness appear attainable. Most of these systems are externally powered gatling guns firing metallic cased ammunition, and these components have benefited from over twenty-five years of design refinements and material improvements. Most recent efforts have centered on ammunition performance. These have yielded improved projectile designs such as hard core penetrators, multi-purpose explosive warheads, and development of fully telescoped compacted charge high velocity ammunition. Gun systems should still play a major roll in future aircraft because of their reliability and cost effectiveness, and therefore there will be a need not only for improved ammunition, but simpler and lighter high performance gun mechanisms as well. Tround international proposes to develop a 20mm gun system based upon its unique open-chamber tm design wherein a simple rotary mechanism with a relatively small number of moving parts replaces the complex reciprocating one used in all conventional guns. Tround will demonstrate in phase i the ability to meet all the stated requirements for this weapon system including the use of an all plastic cartridge case with insensitve munitions characteristics.

Keywords:
GUNS AMMUNITION FIRING RATES SENSITIVITY MUNITIONS CANNONS STRESS ANALYSIS

Under Phase I SBIR funding, Tround International demonstrated the feasibility of achieving the performance goals for an advanced aircraft gun system based upon Tround's Open-Chamber (tm) weapons system technology. This was accomplished through a vigorous engineering analysis consisting of finite elements stress analysis for critical gun parts, and a dynamic analysis of major rotary components to further refine gun power requirements with respect to cyclic rate, time-to-rate, and inertial loads, and to define the indexing drive size envelope. These efforts generated a gun design concept which promises to achieve the performance requirements. In addition, sufficient interior ballistics studies were conducted by Veritay Technology to demonstrate the feasibility of achieving desired system muzzle velocity with the PGU-28 projectile. This coupled with the cartridge case materials study conducted by Tround in conjunction with the manufacturing and assembly techniques performed to date on the .50 cal. Tround ammunition provide a high degree of confidence for a successful Phase II effort. We are therefore proposing a Phase II program which as its prime objective will produce a prototype twin barreled 20mm aircraft cannon, with sufficient testing to demonstrate the advantages of this unique concept.

Keywords:
GUNS AMMUNITION FIRING RATES SENSITIVITY MUNITIONS CANNONS STRESS ANALYSIS