76. Some Problems of Weight Engineering in Missile Design

Paper

Abstract

From the standpoint of weight engineering, one of the most difficult, though interesting activities in the preliminary design of long range supersonic missiles is that connected with optimization studies. In general, an optimum missile is one having a minimum cost and size for the required performance. The best measure of cost is weight empty, and the best general measure of size is the gross weight. The establishment of these optimum supersonic missile designs has uncovered a tremendous number of new weight problems. These new problems required the development of new weight estimating data and methods.