GB258640A - Improvements in or relating to apparatus for launching aeroplanes - Google Patents

Abstract

258,640. Thornycroft & Co., Ltd., J. I., and Thornycroft, Sir J. E. June 19,1925. Launching. - A launching catapult applicable on ships comprises a trolly b connected by a rope 2 to a pulley h fast with a fusee g, a rope 1 being fixed to the small end of the fusee and passing from its large end round a pulley m on the ram of a prime mover o to a fixed point of attachment. The prime mover may be of the sort in which cordite is burnt to generate high-pressure gas, as in Specifications 127,879, [Class 92 (ii), Ordnance &c.], and 128,238, [Class 9 (ii), Torpedoes &c.]. Two or more combustion chambers may be connected to the cylinder o at different points of its length, the arrival of pressure conditions being utilized to fire the corresponding charge. The trolly, which is guided by skids d, d<1> sliding between pairs of rails, is arrested gradually towards the end of its travel by a projection t engaging a loop in a wire rope u which passes round the pulleys on the ram of a hydraulic or pneumatic buffer y. The trolly is returned by a tail-rope which unwinds from a winch, or may be returned automatically by arranging the tail rope to raise a weight.