Ring airfoil style paintball and launcher

Abstract

A ring airfoil style paintball comprises a ring airfoil carrying a marking agent. The marking agent is located in one more compartments of a body of the ring airfoil. In one embodiment, marking agent is located in an annular ring in a nose section of the body, or in a plurality of spherical compartments in the nose section of the body. In one embodiment, the ring airfoil style paintball is connected to a sabot when launched. Cartridges comprising a sabot containing the ring airfoil style paintball are launched from a launcher. In one embodiment, the cartridges are launched with a compressed air charged. The launcher includes a magazine for sequentially delivering cartridges for launch. A stripper associated with the launcher strips the sabot from the ring airfoil paintball, and an ejector ejects the stripped sabot from the launcher.

1 . A projectile for delivering a payload of marking agent comprising: 
 a ring airfoil comprising a generally annular ring airfoil body surrounding a central passage, said body having a nose and a tail generally opposite said nose, said body defining at least one cavity containing marking agent, said body configured to release said marking agent from said at least one cavity upon impacting a target.    
   
   
       2 . The projectile in accordance with  claim 1  wherein said body defines a plurality of cavities located in said nose.  
   
   
       3 . The projectile in accordance with  claim 1  wherein said marking agent is located in a container which is located in said at least one cavity.  
   
   
       4 . The projectile in accordance with  claim 2  wherein said cavities are generally spherical in shape.  
   
   
       5 . The projectile in accordance with  claim 1  wherein said ring airfoil is mounted in a sabot.  
   
   
       6 . The projectile in accordance with  claim 1  wherein said body is constructed of frangible, molded polystyrene.