Self-orienting aircraft landing gear
AssigneeIcon Aircraft, Inc.
InventorsByron Young, Jon Karkow, Steen Strand
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An aircraft landing gear self-orients so to align itself within a plane parallel to the plane defined by the aircraft's roll and yaw axis. A nose gear of a tricycle landing gear configuration includes the ability to not only caster 360 degrees but also self-orient itself to be aligned parallel with the plane defined by the aircraft's roll and yaw axis once removed from any interaction with the ground. A simple and efficient mechanical design provides the landing gear with a substantially constant centering torque that neither impedes nor impairs ground movement yet returns the nose gear to a proper alignment for retraction and stowage.
Claims17
A self-orienting aircraft landing gear, comprising:
- a landing gear assembly;
- a wheel rotatably coupled to a wheel fork wherein the wheel fork is coupled to the landing gear assembly by a cylindrical shaft such that the wheel fork is operable to caster about a longitudinal axis of the shaft;
- a cam associated with the wheel fork and circumscribing the cylindrical shaft wherein the cam possesses a planar cardioid shape having a top cam surface, a lower cam surface and a cam sidewall wherein the cam sidewall is substantially perpendicular to the upper cam surface and the lower cam surface;
- and
- a cam follower linked to the landing gear assembly and operable to continually engage the cam sidewall of the cam so as to create a substantially constant centering torque driving the cam follower to a cusp of the planar modified cardioid.
A landing gear centering mechanism for an aircraft wherein the aircraft possesses a yaw axis, a pitch axis and a roll axis, the landing gear centering mechanism comprising:
- a wheel fork housing a landing gear wheel wherein rotation of the wheel within the wheel fork defines a rotation plane;
- a wheel fork shaft coupling the wheel fork to a landing gear assembly wherein the wheel fork is operable to caster about a longitudinal axis substantially parallel to the yaw axis;
- a cam circumscribing the wheel fork shaft wherein the cam includes a cardioid shape;
- and
- a cam follower interposed between the cam and the landing gear assembly operable to generate, through contact with the cam, a centering torque about the longitudinal axis driving the rotation plane of the wheel to align with a pitch plane defined by the roll axis and the yaw axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.