Air erected gyro
AssigneeRockwell International Corporation
InventorLeonard D. Sholes
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An air erected gyro includes an erection-force producing air stream and gravity-responsive valve means whose gate portion is movable across the air stream so as to vary the erection force magnitude. Also included is a compensator means connected for movement with the gate and for also confronting the air stream so as to at least partially counteract air stream induced horizontal coercive effects on the valve means position.
Claims9
In an air erected vertical gyro having a spin axis and including:
- inner and outer gimbals for permitting gyro spin axis tilt in first and second orthogonally related planes,
- air stream producing means including first, second, third, and fourth orifices sequentially oriented at substantially 90.degree. intervals around the inner gimbal, each orifice exhausting an air stream oriented substantially at 90.degree. relative to said spin axis and substantially parallel to one of said planes, each orifice and its associated air stream being substantially rectangular having first and second boundaries substantially parallel to said spin axis,
- first and second gravity-responsive, pendulous valve assemblies suspended from said inner gimbal so as to be rotatable relative thereto in directions substantially parallel to, respectively, said first and second planes,
- said first and second valve assemblies including respectively first and second pairs of valve gates, each one of said first pair being associated with a different one of said first and third orifices, and each one of said second pair being associated with a different one of said second and fourth orifices,
- each said gate, in response to its valve assembly's rotation relative to the inner gimbal, moving substantially orthogonally across the air stream from its associated orifice so as to variably confront said associated stream and thereby vary the associated air stream reaction force,
- each said gate cooperating with its paired gate such that as one gate causes its associated air stream reaction force to increase, the paired gate causes its associated air stream reaction force to decrease,
- each said gate intersecting, when the gyro is fully erected, all or part of its associated air stream's first boundary without intersecting any part of its associated air stream's second boundary,
- the improvement comprising four substantially flat surfaces individually associated with a different one of said four gates, each said flat surface connected for movement with its associated gate and for substantially orthogonally confronting a portion of the associated air stream not confronted by the associated gate, each said flat surface being configured to intersect, when the gyro is fully erected a part but less than all of the associated air stream second boundary.
An air erected gyro having a spin axis and comprising:
- at least one gimbal for permitting variation of the spin axis orientation in at least one plane,
- means for producing two collinear and oppositely directed air streams which provide the forces for precessing said gyro, each said air stream having first and second boundaries which, when the gyro is fully erected, are horizontally displaced in opposing directions from a vertical reference plane,
- a gravity-responsive vertical-seeking valve assembly for simultaneously controlling in a complementing relationship the reaction force magnitudes of said two air streams, said valve assembly including two air stream confronting means which are movable in unison so as to individually cross different ones of said streams, each said air stream confronting means comprising a valve gate portion and, connected for movement therewith, an airfoil portion,
- each said valve gate portion being configured so as to extend, when the gyro is fully erected, from outside its associated air stream across a portion or all of its associated air stream first boundary to a location inside its associated air stream,
- each said airfoil portion being configured so as to extend, when the gyro is fully erected, from outside its associated air stream across a portion of its associated air stream second boundary to a location inside its associated air stream.
In an air erected gyro of the type including an erection-force producing air stream and associated gravity-responsive valve means having a gate portion movable transversely relative to the associated air stream so as to variably confront said stream and divert at least some of the gate confronted portion away from the non-confronted portion, the improvement comprising compensator means, connected with said gate and also confronting said stream, for at least partially counteracting, by diverting some air not confronted by said gate portion, the horizontal coercive effects of the gate diverted air on the valve means position.
In an air erected gyro of the type including an erection-force producing air stream and associated gravity-responsive, air stream confronting means movable relative to the associated air stream in a plane transverse thereto for variably confronting said stream and thereby varying the erection-force magnitude, a method for reducing vertical reference error caused by air coercion comprising confronting and diverting a part of the air stream such that the diverted air has opposing horizontal components in the plane of said confronting means movement.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.