Airplane with configuration changing in flight
AssigneeAirbus Operations GmbH
InventorMathias Farouz-Fouquet
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An airplane comprises a fuselage, two wings, engines, a rear tail unit comprising a horizontal tail provided with two tail ends, a first and a second set of fuel tanks, and a fuel transfer system configured to be able to transfer, at least in flight, fuel from one to the other of the first and second sets of fuel tanks, the tail ends being, in addition, mounted so as to be able to be pivoted, at least in flight, relative to the horizontal tail, the airplane thus having a configuration changeable in flight.
Claims10
An airplane comprising:
- a fuselage with a longitudinal axis,
- at least two wings,
- engines,
- a rear tail unit comprising a horizontal tail provided with two tail ends, and
- at least one first set of fuel tanks,
- at least one second set of fuel tanks, offset relative to said at least one first set of fuel tanks at least along the longitudinal axis, and
- at least one fuel transfer system configured to transfer, at least in flight, fuel from one to the other of said at least one first set of fuel tanks and said at least one second sets of fuel tanks, and
- wherein said tail ends are pivotably mounted so as to be able to be pivoted, at least in flight, relative to said horizontal tail.
A method for modifying in flight a configuration of an airplane, said airplane comprising at least a fuselage, two wings, at least two engines, a rear tail unit comprising a horizontal tail provided with two tail ends, and at least first and second sets of fuel tanks, and at least one fuel transfer system configured to be able to transfer fuel from one to the other of said at least one first and second sets of fuel tanks, said tail ends being mounted so as to be able to be pivoted relative to said horizontal tail, comprising:
- at least a first step comprising transferring fuel to bring said at least one first and second sets of fuel tanks into a first filling state in which a center of gravity of the airplane is situated towards a front of the airplane relative to a center of lift, and bringing said tail ends into a folded position in which said tail ends are arranged substantially orthogonally to a general plane of said horizontal tail;
- and
- at least a second step comprising transferring fuel to bring said at least one first and second sets of fuel tanks into a second filling state, in which the center of gravity of the airplane is situated towards the rear of the airplane relative to the center of lift, and bringing said tail ends into a deployed position in which said tail ends are arranged substantially in the general plane of said horizontal tail,
- said first and second steps being implemented alternately at least during a flight of the airplane.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.