nose cone
Also nose-cone, nosecone.
[f. nose n.]
A conical nose-cap; spec. the cone-shaped front part of a rocket, which is designed to withstand the severe heating caused by atmospheric friction and generally contains any instruments that may be carried.
| 1949 Jrnl. Brit. Interplanetary Soc. VIII. 233 A diagram of the rocket is shown in Fig. 1. The equipment space is within a thin ogival-shaped aluminium nose⁓cone. 1956 Spaceflight I. 26/1 At this stage..the ballistic nose-cone (which protects the satellite package from aero⁓dynamic heating) can be thrown off. 1963 Guardian 30 Mar. 1/5 The plane was struck by lightning..A hole was made in the fibre nosecone. 1964 J. L. Nayler Dict. Astronautics 177 The nose cone may become the satellite itself..or, after shielding the satellite.., be separated by an explosive cartridge. 1974 A. Price Other Paths ii. ii. 128 They were trying to take the brass nose-cone off one of our howitzer shells. |