Flying printer

In a flying printer, the improvement comprising a printing mechanism including a ratchet wheel continuously rotatable at a first speed and having at least one tooth, a print drum continuously rotatable at a second speed having a specific ratio to that of said ratchet wheel and having typeface characters arranged on the curved periphery thereof, at least one hammer means rotatable between a first position in which said characters on said print drum are imprinted and a second stand-by position, a trigger lever including an arm rotatably supported at a support point on each hammer means for driving the corresponding hammer means towards said print drum, each trigger lever being independently rotatable into and out of the path of said tooth of said ratchet wheel, means for selectively rotating each trigger lever into the path of said tooth of said ratchet wheel, said ratchet wheel tooth having a planar striking face for striking against said trigger lever and having an outermost point, designated by A, on a transverse section taken through the axis of said ratchet wheel, said trigger lever having a planar stroke-receiving face for receiving a stroke from said planar striking fact of said tooth and for making contact wherewith when said trigger lever is rotated into said path of said tooth, said planar striking face of said ratchet wheel tooth and said planar stroke-receiving fact of said trigger lever lying in a common contact plane at the moment of impact between said faces, said common contact plane passing through the center of rotation of said hammer means and the center of rotation of said ratchet wheel, said point A tracing a circle when rotated, a normal line being defined as the tangent to said circle at the point on said circle where said striking face makes contact with said stroke-receiving face, said support point being located on the side opposite to the axis of said ratchet wheel with respect to said normal line and an angle .theta. formed by said normal line and a line connecting said point A at contact with said stroke-receiving face and said support point lying in the range between 0.degree. and 2.7.degree. and buffer means including an elastic member having upper and lower two-stage members having shallow V-shaped grooves and deep V-shaped grooves formed alternately for receiving said arm of said hammer, said members being arranged so that one shallow V-shaped groove and one deep V-shaped groove are combined with each other in a vertical direction as a pair for receiving said hammer means at the stand-by position to absorb the force of the reaction of striking when said hammer means is returned to the stand-by position from the striking position.