Air vehicle
AssigneeThales Holdings UK PLC
InventorsGerald Gleed, Dean Alders
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An air vehicle comprising only one wing, which is thin and substantially flat, the wing being elongate and preferably diamond-shaped, and a pod removably coupled to the wing for relative rotation about an axis normal to the major surfaces of the wing, the pod bearing a propulsor for the air vehicle. The propulsor may be a propeller with a Custer duct for static lift.
Claims37
An air vehicle comprising:
- only one wing, the wing being thin and substantially flat and having one or more major surfaces, the wing being rotationally asymmetric about an axis at its center normal to the major surfaces of the wing;
- and
- a pod removably coupled to the wing for relative rotation of the pod about an axis normal to the major surfaces of the wing, the pod bearing a propulsor for the air vehicle.
An air vehicle comprising:
- only one wing, the wing being thin and substantially flat and having one or more major surfaces;
- at least one propeller coupled to the wing to drive the air vehicle in a direction generally parallel to the major surfaces of the wing;
- and
- a Custer duct in front of the at least one propeller to provide static lift.
An air vehicle comprising:
- only one elongate wing, the wing being thin and substantially flat, and the wing having plural control surfaces on its edge actuable by respective actuators;
- a pod mounted on the wing for rotation through a right-angle between configurations for propulsion respectively lengthwise and widthwise of the wing, the pod bearing a propulsor for the air vehicle;
- and
- a control system configured to selectively activate the control surfaces in accordance with the relative rotational position of the wing and pod.
An air vehicle comprising:
- a propeller for driving the vehicle forward;
- a Custer duct in front of the propeller;
- and
- a shutter to adjustably close an axially-extending region over the Custer duct to selectively reduce a static aerodynamic lift that the Custer duct generates from the passage of air drawn in by the propeller.
A propulsor pod for an air vehicle, comprising:
- a propulsor;
- and
- a turntable to support the propulsor and configured to removably couple the propulsor pod to a wing of the air vehicle for relative rotation.
A thin, elongate, substantially flat wing for an air vehicle, comprising a turntable on which a propulsor pod is removably mountable for relative rotation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.