Design of a New Unlock Mechanism for Fuel Tank Catapult

To reduce the time of the operation for fuel tank catapult, a new pneumatic unlock frame based on slider-crank mechanism has been designed, and a virtual prototype has been established by ProE and ADAMS, the process of unlocking and launch was simulated. The result shows that this catapult can be unlocked rapidly. The time of unlocking and launch is shortened more than 10 times by improving the principle of unlocking mechanism. It only takes less than 3s to attain safety.