VERTICALLY LANDING AIRCRAFT

• US 20150274289A1
• Filed: 03/31/2014
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Lacy, Roger W., Newman, Daniel Ira, Preator, Robin M., Gianopulos, Elia N., Ziegenbein, Perry
• Application Number:
  US14/231,610
• Publication Number:
  US 20150274289A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 29/0008 having its flight directional axis horizontal when grounded
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 29/0025 the propellers being fixed relative to the fuselage
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 29/0033 the propellers being tiltable relative to the fuselage
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/25 Fixed-wing aircraft VTOL aircraft B64U10/20
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 30/10 Wings
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 30/20 Rotors; Rotor supports
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 30/26 Ducted or shrouded rotors
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 30/294 Rotors arranged in the UAV body
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 50/14 ducted or shrouded
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 70/80 Vertical take-off or landing, e.g. using rockets rotorcrafts B64U10/10; VTOL aircraft B64U10/20

Abstract

An aircraft takes off, lands, or hovers with at least one wing-mounted thrust-producing device attached to at least one wing of the aircraft and at least two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices attached to a fuselage of the aircraft both providing vertical thrust. The aircraft is flown while the at least one wing-mounted thrust-producing device provides horizontal thrust and with the at least two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices not providing any thrust.

Claims

1. An aircraft comprising:

opposed wings each comprising a first wing portion and a second wing portion, the second wing portion of each of the opposed wings moveably attached to the first wing portion, wherein when the second wing portion is moved to a flight configuration the second wing portion is parallel to the first wing portion and forms with the first wing portion a continuous wing, and when the second wing portion of each of the opposed wings is moved to a landing/takeoff/hover configuration the second wing portion is oriented non-parallel to the first wing portion breaking up the continuous wing;

two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices each attached to the respective second wing portion of the opposed wings and configured to move, upon movement of the second wing portion relative to the first wing portion, from the landing/takeoff/hover configuration in which the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices provide thrust in a first direction to the flight configuration in which the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices provide the thrust in a second direction; and

two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices attached to a fuselage of the aircraft, the fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices positioned at opposite sides and evenly spaced from a centerline between the two wing-mounted thrust producing devices, wherein the aircraft is unmanned.

2. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices are configured to move from the landing/takeoff/hover configuration in which the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices provide vertical thrust to a horizontal flight configuration in which the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices provide horizontal thrust.

3. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices are configured to provide vertical thrust.

4. The aircraft of claim 2 wherein when the aircraft is in flight the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices are configured to provide the horizontal thrust and the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices are configured to not provide any thrust, and when the aircraft is landing, taking off, or hovering both the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices and the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices are configured to provide the vertical thrust.

7. The aircraft of claim 1 in which the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices and the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices comprise fans, and fan blades of two out of four of the fans are configured to spin in a clockwise direction and the fan blades of the other two of the four fans are configured to spin in a counter-clockwise direction.

8. The aircraft of claim 1 further comprising at least one panel which is configured to move from the flight configuration in which it covers the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices to the landing/takeoff/hover configuration in which it does not cover the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices.

9. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices and the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices each comprise at least one fan and at least one duct.

5. (canceled)

6. (canceled)

10. An aircraft comprising:

opposed wings of an aircraft, which is unmanned, each comprising a first wing portion and a second wing portion, the second wing portion of each of the opposed wings moveably attached to the first wing portion, wherein when the second wing portion of each of the opposed wings is moved to a flight configuration the second wing portion is parallel to the first wing portion and forms with the first wing portion a continuous wing, and when the second wing portion of each of the opposed wings is moved to a landing/takeoff/hover configuration the second wing portion is oriented non-parallel to the first wing portion breaking up the continuous wing;

two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices attached to the respective second wing portion of the ends of the opposed wings of the aircraft; and

two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices attached to a fuselage of the aircraft and positioned at opposite sides and evenly spaced from a centerline between the two wing-mounted thrust producing devices;

wherein when the aircraft is in flight the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices are configured to provide horizontal thrust and the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices are configured to not provide any thrust, and when the aircraft is landing, taking off, or hovering each of the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices and the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices are configured to provide vertical thrust.

12. The aircraft of claim 10 in which the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices and the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices comprise fans, and fan blades of two out of four of the fans are configured to spin in a clockwise direction and the fan blades of the other two of the four fans are configured to spin in a counter-clockwise direction.

13. The aircraft of claim 10 further comprising at least two panels, wherein when the aircraft is in flight the at least two panels are configured to cover the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices and when the aircraft is landing, taking off, or hovering the at least two panels are configured to be open to uncover the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices.

14. The aircraft of claim 10 wherein the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices and the two fuselage-mounted thrust producing devices each comprise a fan and a duct.

11. (canceled)

15. A method of flying an aircraft comprising:

taking off, landing, or hovering with the aircraft, which is unmanned, with two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices attached to respective second wing portions of opposed wings which are disposed non-parallel to respective first wing portions of the opposed wings of the aircraft, and two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices attached to a fuselage of the aircraft both providing vertical thrust; and

moving the second wing portions to be disposed parallel to the respective first wing portions to form a continuous wing and flying the aircraft while the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices provide horizontal thrust and the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices do not provide any thrust.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising moving the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices from a first configuration in which the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices provide the vertical thrust to a second configuration in which the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices provide the horizontal thrust.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising moving at least one panel from an open configuration in which the at least one panel does not cover the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices during the taking off, the landing, or the hovering of the aircraft to a closed configuration in which the at least one panel covers the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices during the flying of the aircraft.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the taking off, the landing, or the hovering with the aircraft comprises the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices and the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices all providing vertical thrust, and the flying the aircraft comprises the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices providing horizontal thrust and the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices not providing any thrust.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the taking off, the landing, or the hovering with the aircraft comprises two panels being open and not covering the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices, and the flying the aircraft comprises the two panels being closed and covering the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices and the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices comprise fans, and the taking off, the landing, or the hovering with the aircraft comprises fan blades of two out of four of the fans spinning in a clockwise direction and the fan blades of the other two of the four fans spinning in a counter-clockwise direction.