Ballistic Function

Mechanization of the ballistic function

This Stephenson III six-bar linkage sets the elevation of a ballistic trajectory to reach a specified distance downrange given an initial velocity of 500 m/s. This function is described in Computing Linkages by A. Svoboda (pg 285). Mark Plecnik obtained this linkage after evaluating almost 100,000 different designs.

2013 EI slideshow

Photo gallery from 2013 Energy Invitational