Vertical lift system through tangential blowing of air jets channelled over the top of rotating cylinders

Abstract

This invention pertains to a means of aerial lift depending on the use of an air jet blown and channelled (through a nozzle and a vane) exclusively and almost tangentially over a limited segment of a rotating cylinder (a Magnus cylinder) thereby creating a useful depression and lift. The part of the cylinder's surface swept by such jet (which part we will name the "useful segment") is delimited upstream by a nozzle "splitting" a sheet of air almost tangentially over the cylinder and downstream by a vane which will skim the surface of the cylinder and direct the jet away from the surface of the rotating cylinder. It is possible to utilize the energy required for pumping the aforementioned jet tangentially over the cylinder much more efficiently than is the case with a classical Magnus cylinder because, instead of the cylinder being immersed totally in the pumped air flux, the jet channelled by the nozzle and the vane of the present invention does not generate any useless or contrary lift, or any sizable zone of turbulence. A large number of accessory devices are also proposed in order to make this principle applicable and useful. In particular, the aforementioned basic element (i.e. cylinder, nozzle and vane) are arranged in several modules and these modules are protected from the wind by a system of walls and louvers. The attitude of an aircraft equipped with such modules is controlled mainly by moving some vanes closer to or farther from the nozzles, with a consequent variation of the surface of the useful segments and thus the lift of these modules.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.