Method For Controlling Vertical Take-Off And Landing Aircraft Using Different Propeller Blade Angle Of Attack Ranges For Different Flight Modes
AssigneeJoby Aero, Inc.
InventorsGregor Veble Mikic, JoeBen Bevirt, Jeremy Bain, Alex Stoll
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for the control of a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft which reduces the acoustic profile of the rotary airfoil in hover for VTOL applications. The rotary airfoil incurs an efficiency penalty in order to improve the acoustic performance during hover. The aircraft operates the rotary airfoils of the propeller during hover in the hover angle of attack range, and the aircraft operates the rotary airfoils during forward flight in the forward angle of attack range.
Claims11
An apparatus of a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, the apparatus comprising:
- a flight control system configured to command and control a tiltable rotor assembly by performing one of more actions, the actions comprising:
- tilting a propeller having a plurality of blades with variable pitch, the propeller being configured to tilt to a vertical orientation for hover flight mode and a horizontal orientation for forward flight mode;
- rotating the propeller to generate thrust;
- and
- controlling the variable pitch propeller to operate within different pitch regimes in the hover and forward flight modes, the pitch regime for the forward flight mode corresponding to a first angle of attack range and the pitch regime for the hover flight mode corresponding to a second angle of attack range.
A method of thrust control of a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, the method comprising:
- tilting a propeller having a plurality of blades with variable pitch, the propeller being configured to tilt to a vertical orientation for hover flight mode and a horizontal orientation for forward flight mode;
- rotating the propeller to generate thrust;
- and
- controlling the variable pitch propeller to operate within different pitch regimes in the hover and forward flight modes, the pitch regime for the forward flight mode
- corresponding to a first angle of attack range and the pitch regime for the hover flight mode corresponding to a second angle of attack range.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.