VTOL aircraft
AssigneeAugust H. Beck Foundation Company
InventorAugust H. Beck, Jr.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention provides a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft vehicle in which a ducted fan with upwardly directed inlet discharges air generally horizontally across a segmented circular wing. Said wing segments are individually controllable in pitch and each includes a spoiler and split flaps to increase effectiveness and sensitivity in lifting and controlling the aircraft. Directional stability and thrust for horizontal movement is provided by controls directing different proportions of total airflow to the various segments around the aircraft and varying the direction of said airflow both radially and vertically. Power failure protection is provided by means for maintaining free rotation of the fan until needed to provide lift at touchdown.
Claims13
A vertical take off and landing aircraft comprising:
- an airframe of generally radial symmetry about a central located ducted fan ingesting air from above said aircraft and discharging said air generally horizontally toward the outer perimeter of said aircraft through a duct defined by an upper and a lower plate extending to the perimeter of the aircraft body;
- a plurality of curved airflow redirecting vanes pivotally mounted within said duct outboard of and adjacent to the discharge of said fan and adjustable for redirection of said fan discharge into essentially radial airflow;
- a plurality of flow-restricting vanes pivotally mounted in said duct outboard of and adjacent to said airflow redirecting vanes;
- a generally circular wing comprised of a plurality of similar airfoil segments pivotally mounted in the air discharge of said duct in such a relationship that said air discharge flows generally evenly above and below the airfoil segments of said wing;
- a control means for operably linking and controlling the relative positioning of said airfoil segments;
- said circular wing airfoil segments are equipped with automatically deployed and retracted spoilers;
- said circular wing airfoil segments are equipped with split flap.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.