Vertical take-off and landing aerodyne optimized for horizontal flight
OwnerGérard Tavininventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed is a vertical take-off and landing aerodyne, including a fuselage, two wings, horizontal flight propulsion unit and at least one pair of rotors intended to provide propulsion and lift in the take-off and landing phases. The rotors are retractable and the horizontal flight propulsion unit includes a counter-rotating propeller, situated at the tail of the aerodyne, and a drive unit for rotating the counter-rotating propeller, the counter-rotating propeller being capable of being oriented by a control unit about two axes, one parallel to the yaw axis and the other parallel to the pitch axis of the aerodyne, such that the counter-rotating propeller is used for controlling the attitude of the aerodyne, the latter therefore not having a tail unit.
Claims23
A vertical take-off and landing aerodyne comprising:
- a fuselage;
- two wings configured to provide lift in horizontal flight;
- a direction and fore-and-aft controller;
- a horizontal flight propulsion system comprising
- a counter-rotating propeller disposed at a tail of the aerodyne, and
- a drive system configured to drive the counter-rotating propeller in rotation about an axis of rotation, the counter-rotating propeller being configured to be oriented by the controller about two axes, one of said two axes being parallel to a yaw axis of the aerodyne and the other of said two axes being parallel to a pitch axis of the aerodyne, so that the counter-rotating propeller operates as a steering system configured to steer and stabilize the aerodyne during horizontal flight phases such that the aerodyne has no additional steering system configured to steer or stabilize the aerodyne during the horizontal flight phases at the tail;
- and
- at least one pair of rotors configured to provide propulsion and lift in the take-off and landing phases, the rotors being retractable, each of the rotors being carried by an arm movable between:
- (i) an extended position, in which the rotor is located on a respective side of the fuselage, with an axis of rotation of the rotor being vertical, two rotors of the same pair of rotors being symmetrical in relation to a longitudinal axis of the fuselage, and (ii) a retracted position, in which the arm and the respective rotor are received in a housing of the fuselage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.