Steer-drive for boats and planes

A steer-drive of a vehicle operating primarily in fluids, said vehicle being one of (i) a boat and (ii) an airplane and having (a) respective left- and right-side propulsion elements, (b) respective left- and right-side drive units, (c) a main drive for delivering driving torque to said drive units, and (d) a steering actuator for indicating the desired direction for vehicle movement, said steer-drive comprising:

• a central propulsion shaft for receiving driving torque from said main drive;
• respective left and right orbital units, each orbital unit having:
• an input gear mounted for rotation about a first axis for receiving driving torque from said central drive shaft,
• an output gear mounted for rotation about said first axis,
• a housing mounted for rotation about said first axis, and
• at least one cluster gear meshed with only said input and output gears and mounted for rotation on an orbit shaft positioned parallel with said first axis and carried by said housing so that, when said housing is rotated about said first axis, said cluster gear orbits about said input and output gears;
• and
• rotary connectors for transferring torque between rotating elements, a respective one of said rotary connectors being fixed to the housing of each one of said orbital units;
• a steering motor responsive to the positioning of said steering actuator for generating steering torque that is delivered simultaneously through said rotary connectors to cause equal and opposite rotation of the housings of said orbital units, thereby combining said steering torque with any driving torque being delivered to said output gears by rotation of said input gears;
• and
• said respective left- and right-side propulsion elements are connected to said respective left- and right-side drive units so that said combined driving and steering torque being delivered to each said respective output gear of said orbital units is delivered to said respective left- and right-side propulsion elements.