Aircraft excessive fuel dumping ejection parallel to flight direction
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
InventorsTsze C. Tai, Steven A. Woods
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Excessive fuel is dumped by ejection under a pressurized outflow velocity from an aircraft during flight as jets in a direction parallel to air stream flow relative to the aircraft, from a rearwardly facing exit opening of a fuel jettison device mounted on the lower surface of the aircraft, with the exit fixedly spaced below the lower aircraft surface a short distance to avoid the Coanda effect while reducing or eliminating fuel and fuel mist impingement on aircraft surfaces.
Claims2
In combination with an aircraft having a lower fuselage surface portion from which excessive fuel is to be dumped during flight, a system for dumping the excessive fuel during said flight of the aircraft, comprising:
- a fuel supply line on the lower surface portion of the aircraft to which the excessive fuel is fed;
- and fuel jettison means connected to the fuel supply line for ejection of the excessive fuel as jets from a fixed location spaced below said lower fuselage surface portion in a fixedly established direction parallel to air stream flow relative to the aircraft during said flight thereof, wherein said fuel jettison means includes a nozzle having a rearwardly facing exit opening from which said fuel jets emerge at said fixed location in the direction parallel to the air stream flow, wherein said exit opening is spaced below the lower surface portion at said fixed location by five inches so that said fuel jets are ejected therefrom under pressure at a velocity of 10 feet per second.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.