Systems and methods for rotor/wing aircraft
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorEric W. Walliser
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods for rotor/wing aircraft are disclosed. In one embodiment, an aircraft includes an airframe, a high-lift canard and tail, a rotor/wing, a propulsion system, and a drive assembly. The drive assembly, which may include a radial inflow turbine, is configured to extract work from the propulsion system to selectively rotate the rotor/wing assembly thus enabling the aircraft to conduct rotary-wing flight, fixed wing flight as well as smoothly transition between the two modes of flight.
Claims18
An aircraft comprising:
- a propulsion system;
- a rotor/wing assembly;
- and
- a radial inflow turbine assembly including a radial inflow turbine coupled to the rotor/wing assembly and configured to receive exhaust from the propulsion system during a rotational mode of operation and rotate the rotor/wing assembly, the turbine assembly configured to allow the exhaust to bypass the turbine and provide forward thrust during a second mode of operation.
A drive assembly for an aircraft having a propulsion system and a rotor/wing assembly, the drive assembly comprising:
- a radial inflow turbine assembly operatively coupled to the rotor/wing assembly and to the propulsion system and configured to extract work from the propulsion system to selectively rotate the rotor/wing assembly.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.