Reduced visibility rotorcraft and method of controlling flight of reduced visibility rotorcraft
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Abstract
A rotary aircraft (rotorcraft) in which the entire aircraft rotates about its center of mass as it flies, and in which the center of mass is located external to the aircraft in the generally triangular region formed by the aircraft'"'"'s single wing and two propellers. As the aircraft flies, the two propellers provide torque about the center of mass and rotate the wing, which provides lift for the aircraft. The aircraft is controllable via a stationary radio transmitter that sends commands for pitch, roll, yaw and altitude. A receiver in the aircraft uses the transmitted signal to establish the aircraft'"'"'s instantaneous orientation in combination with the sent commands to generate control signals that drive the propeller motors that affect the aircraft'"'"'s attitude. Pitch and roll are controlled by pulse width modulation of the propeller motor voltages in order to affect the thrust at specific portions of the aircraft'"'"'s rotation cycle.
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Citations
62 Claims
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1-50. -50. (canceled)
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51. A method for increasing a rotorcraft'"'"'s stability during flight, comprising:
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providing a rotorcraft with a wing, a longitudinal axis parallel to the wing, and propellers balanced against the wing wherein the propellers are offset on either side of the longitudinal axis; and
increasing the moment of inertia for the rotorcraft by increasing the offset of each of the propellers from the longitudinal axis and from each other. - View Dependent Claims (52)
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53. A method of controlling the flight of a rotorcraft, comprising:
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providing a rotorcraft with a center of mass located external to the rotorcraft'"'"'s structure;
providing at least one thrust generator on the rotorcraft, wherein the at least one thrust generator defines a rotational path;
varying the thrust applied by the at least one thrust generator at any location along the rotational path of the at least one thrust generator to control the flight direction and altitude of the rotorcraft. - View Dependent Claims (54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62)
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Specification