Decoy flare

Abstract

An infrared (IR) decoy flare for a helicopter, or an aircraft with a similar size engine, the flare including a casing, at least two longitudinal flare pellets in the casing, a single impulse cartridge to serially expel and ignite the pellets, and a delay element associated with at least one of the flare pellets and arranged to be ignited by the impulse cartridge and to expel the associated flare pellet a predetermined interval after ignition.

1 . An infrared (IR) decoy flare for a helicopter, or an aircraft with a similar size engine, said flare comprising: 
 a) a casing;    b) at least two longitudinal flare pellets in said casing;    c) a single impulse cartridge to serially expel and ignite said pellets; and    d) a delay element associated with at least one of said flare pellets and arranged to be ignited by said impulse cartridge and to expel said associated flare pellet a predetermined interval after said ignition.    
     
     
         2 . The infrared decoy flare according to  claim 1 , wherein said delay element includes an ignition compound, a delay compound and an impulse compound.  
     
     
         3 . The infrared decoy flare according to either of claims  1  and  2 , wherein said decoy flare includes three decoy pellets in said casing, and two of said decoy pellets are associated with delay elements for expulsion from the helicopter after different predetermined time intervals.  
     
     
         4 . A method of creating an infrared decoy trail from a helicopter, or an aircraft with a similar size engine, the method comprising: 
 a) providing at least two longitudinal decoy pellets in a single casing; and    b) activating an impulse cartridge to expel and ignite a first one of said decoy pellets while simultaneously igniting delay elements associated with each of the other decoy pellets for expulsion of said other decoy pellets from the helicopter after different predetermined delay times.