Date of Award

Summer 1959

Document Type

Thesis - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mathematics

First Advisor

Pettit, Harvey

Second Advisor

Heider, J. L.

Third Advisor

Swokowski, E. W.

Abstract

In recent years, the science of flight mechanics as applied to long range ballistic missiles has become a rapidly expanding field. It has, in fact, developed with such rapidity that a major restriction on its versatility has been the finding of proper mathematical models to explain and predict missile flight characteristics. Presently, the total missile trajectory from the moment of launch to that of impact at the target is completely programmed on a digital computing facility. (1.) The writing of the computer program, and assuring its subsequent reliability, is most complex and checks on the solution are desirable at the stages of the trajectory analysis. It is the purpose of this paper to provide such a check on the missile position at any point of the free flight trajectory, in terms of a position vector from the launch point to the missile, whenever the distance downrange and the initial conditions at launch are known.

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