The Wire In Wire Guided Missiles

"Bret Cahill"

** There is no high speed spinning reel, rotational inertia is way too high.

AFAIK - the wire comes off a fixed bobbin, sideways.

The technique is still widely used for anti-tank weapons with ranges up to

3.5 kms. The best of them can punch a hole right through 0.5 metre thick armour plate, killing the crew inside.

Heaps of details on wiki.

.... Phil

Yeah, like a spinning reel, not like a fly reel. All the diagrams I've seen show that.

This photo shows a TOW missile with two wires spiralling off the back

I'm told that the Scorpion tank's Stinger missiles use a fine gauge coaxial wire for a video feed and control.

I wonder if any missiles use optical fibre instead of wire, it should work for something like (IIRC) MILAN where the sustainer and steering jets are off-axis and forward of the spool, well once the booster change has finished firing. maybe that start of the fibre would need an ablative coating to protect against the booster flame during launch.

--
?? 100% natural.

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Yep. Imagine how fast it would have to spin to keep up with a rocket. It would self destruct.

nb. This is the reason that CD drives topped out at 56x speed. Above that the inertial forces can rip the CDs apart.

Mythbusters did an episode on it.

** Long before that happened, inertia would cause the hair fine wire to break. ** Yep, "centrifugal" force is a killer.

Even solid steel flywheels and giant, power station alternators have strict rpm limits to prevent disastrous self destruction.

As do humble, bench grinding wheels.

.... Phil

Also, the bobbins are often (always?) cone shaped to assist the wire take off

--

Don't forget about the torpedoes... :)

-- @~@ Remain silent. Nothing from soldiers and magicians is real! / v \ Simplicity is Beauty! /( _ )\ May the Force and farces be with you! ^ ^ (x86_64 Ubuntu 9.10) Linux 2.6.39.3 ???! ???! ???! ???! ???! ???! ????? (CSSA):

I designed several hybrid circuits for the TOW missile when I managed the engineering department at Dickson Electronics, so I was a guest at numerous test firings.

[snip] ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Yes; the bobbin is fixed, and the wire comes from the CENTER of the ball-of-string bobbin. No rotating reel, just slightly curly wire from the inside of a little can.

Your wire, of course, is not a perfect communication channel; if it drapes over grass, all is fine. If it dips into a salt marsh, not so good.

Any fun stories about that?

Not really. Every firing I witnessed was letter-perfect.

Only "fun" thing was the electronics are in a stack of round PCB's. The assembly is shoved inside the missile tube, then the tube is compressed _magnetically_ ! One hell of a shock! They managed to kill some of other suppliers components, but none of my hybrids ever failed. So they loved me ;-) ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Magnetically like a coin shrinker? I guess it takes a smaller pulse to "shrink" a hollow tube than a solid disc.

--
?? 100% natural

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"shrink" a

Yep. They called it a "magneformer". ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

exciting! I made a magneformer, and did some coin crushing years ago. I should see if the caps are still good. I've not really figure out how to dispose of them when they finally burst as they're about the size of a two drawer filing cabinet, but much heavier. Not sure the scrappers would grab them if they're bleeding out in the alley.

Back during the cold war some EE said that he had little faith in any radio controlled missile. The only thing you could trust was a wire guided missile. He added, it must be really strong wire . . .

I'm guessing it comes off a reel axially like the fishing reel.

Bret Cahill

***Not much more than a decade or so ago, some of the salvage & surplus dealers were advertising reels of that wire in various electronics hobby mags.

Connect the power supply in reverse and they might dispose of themselves.