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BAE SYSTEMS HELPS BRITISH SHOOTING TEAM AIM FOR SUCCESS

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BAE Systems 07 July 2008

The British Shooting Team has tested a piece of equipment designed and built by BAE Systems. The technology, which has been developed as part of a £1.5 million partnership with UK Sport, will assist Great Britain’s best shooters in training ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and beyond.

BAE Systems’ scientists were challenged to develop an electronic device to measure the accuracy and consistency of timing between the first and second shot in Olympic double trap shooting to 0.01 of a second.

“The solution seemed fairly simple at first, but typically, as our understanding has grown, so has the complexity required to solve the problem,” says Dr George Simpson, Senior Scientist at BAE Systems’ Advanced Technology Centre. “The system we’ve tested determines the time difference between the two shots."

“We’re able to use the system to evaluate individual performance, which we hope will prove useful to the teams in their final preparations this month.”

Ian Coley, Great Britain National Coach for Olympic double trap, comments: “We have never before been able to accurately calculate timing variations between shots in the double trap event – with shots fired approximately 0.4 seconds apart, it was simply not possible to measure manually.

“In the increasingly competitive world of sport, performance standards continue to rise and the difference between winning and losing is reduced to mere fractions of a second. As such, we are increasingly looking to technology to give our British athletes the competitive edge. This new device developed by BAE Systems will record and analyse timing and its impact on accuracy, helping to boost future gold medals hopes.”

Olympic gold medallist Richard Faulds says: “I have been searching for precision timing equipment for years and look forward to training with it over the coming months and years to enhance my performance on the world stage.”

BAE Systems has established a major five year partnership with UK Sport to help British athletes in their quest for sporting excellence in World and European Championships as well as the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The project with the British Shooting Team is just one of a number of initiatives through which BAE Systems is delivering expertise in structural and mechanical engineering, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, mathematical modelling and simulation, human factors and materials science. Other projects already underway include work with the British cycling, sailing and bob skeleton teams.

The Olympic double trap shooting event requires competitors to shoot two clay targets, released simultaneously, with three rounds of 50 targets. Competitors need to fire their two shots as closely together as possible to ensure that both are hit.
 

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