Back to results
US 4,648,322 AGranted
Propulsion and directional control mechanism for an underwater device
AssigneeSundstrand Corporation
InventorsSteven A. Heitz, Daniel R. Dobbs
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
AssigneeSundstrand Corporation
InventorsSteven A. Heitz, Daniel R. Dobbs
Estimating the term…
A propulsion mechanism for an underwater device and, more particularly, a mobile mine having directional control provided by a pair of positionable fins each independently positionable by an associated fluid cylinder having a piston rod extending therefrom with a rack engaging with a pinion gear on a rotatable shaft supporting the fin. Control valve structure independently controls delivery of fluid under pressure to the two fluid cylinders for separate movement of the fins to produce the desired direction of travel. The propulsion mechanism utilizes a gas turbine which is supplied with hot gas under pressure from a gas propellant chamber which burns solid fuel and the gas turbine is located to enable substantially straight flow-through of gas from the gas propellant chamber through the turbine and through a tubular propeller shaft for exhaust aft of the mobile mine. The gas turbine has a turbine wheel with an axis of rotation offset from the axis of rotation of the propeller shaft and a speed-reduction gearbox is connected between the turbine wheel and the propeller shaft and with the bearing means for supporting the rotating components of the gas turbine, the speed-reduction gearbox and the propeller shaft being mounted to a common, rigid mounting structure in the form of a tail cone to assure accurate bearing alignment for the rotating components.
A mobile underwater device comprising, directional control means including a pair of movable fins at the aft end of the device, a pair of rotatable shafts extending transversely of said device and each mounting one of said fins, and means for positioning said fins by rotation of said shafts including a pair of fluid cylinders associated one with each of the rotatable shafts and each having a piston and a linearly movable piston rod, and a gear connection between each piston rod and associated rotatable shaft for converting linear movement of the piston rod into movement of a fin.
A mobile mine comprising, directional control means including a pair of fins, a pair of rotatable shafts each mounting one of said fins, means for positioning said fins by rotation of said shafts including a pair of fluid cylinders associated one with each of the rotatable shafts and each having a piston and a piston rod, and a rack and pinion connection between each piston rod and associated rotatable shaft.
A mobile underwater device comprising, propulsion means including a hollow propeller shaft mounting a propeller, a gas turbine having a turbine wheel, a gas propellant chamber having an outlet communicating with the turbine wheel, a gas exhaust passage from the turbine extending through the hollow propeller shaft, and said turbine wheel having its axis of rotation offset from the axis of rotation of the hollow propeller shaft to enable said gas exhaust passage to generally align with the center of said hollow propeller shaft.
A mobile mine comprising, a tail cone, a tubular propeller shaft mounting a propeller, bearing means supported by said tail cone for rotatably mounting the propeller shaft, a gas turbine having a turbine wheel, a gas propellant chamber having an outlet communicating with the turbine wheel, a gas exhaust passage from the turbine extending partly through the tubular propeller shaft, and a drive connection between the turbine wheel and the propeller shaft including a speed reduction gearbox with rotatable meshing gears and bearing means supported by the tail cone for mounting the rotatable meshing gears, said turbine wheel having its axis of rotation offset from the axis of rotation of the tubular propeller shaft to enable said gas exhaust passage to generally align with the center of said tubular propeller shaft.
An underwater device comprising, a tail cone, a rotatable propeller shaft, a gas turbine having a turbine wheel providing a drive for the propeller shaft, a speed reduction gearbox connected between the turbine wheel and the propeller shaft and bearing means for said propeller shaft, turbine wheel and speed reduction gearbox which are all mounted on said tail cone to achieve alignment of said bearings.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.