Capacitor-driven multi-stage electromagnetic launchers having augmenting rails

摘要

@ An augmented rail, capactor driven, multi-stage electromagnetic launcher is provided with a pair of generally parallel conductive projectile launching rails with one of the rails being segmented to form a plurality of launcher stages. A capacitive power supply is connected to each of the stages to successively supply current as an armature enters each respective stage. The augmenting conductors act to increase projectile accelerating force and also as power conditioning means. An alternative embodiment utilizes continuous projectile launching rails and successive capacitive power supplies are switched to their respective stages when the projectile armature reaches predetermined positions along the launcher bore.