ROTARY WING AIRCRAFT

• US 3,591,109 A
• Filed: 06/29/1966
• Issued: 07/06/1971
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/1966
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Frank W. Mclarty
• Original Assignee: Frank W. Mclarty
• Inventors: Mclarty, Frank W.
• Application Number:
  US04/562,939
• Time in Patent Office: 1,833 Days
• US Class Current: 244/17.23
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 1/06 Frames; Stringers; Longerons ; Fuselage sections
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 2025/325 specially adapted for helicopters
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 27/04 Helicopters
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 27/12 Rotor drives
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 27/14 Direct drive between power plant and rotor hub

Abstract

This invention is a vertical-lift aircraft whose various features operating in cooperative conjunction with each other as illustrated in the drawings make the craft substantially foolproof, so that any sensible owner-operator capable of driving an automobile safely can fly one of said aircraft with almost perfect safety, even though he or she may never have been off the ground previously.

Claims

1. A rotary wing aircraft employing in continued workable cooperative conjunction the following:

a fuselage body member on which is mounted an engine usually turning a sustaining rotor in flight;

within said fuselage a Drive shaft, rotatably mounted in a tubular housing, continually rotating in flight at somewhat the same speed by virtue of the fact that the drive shaft is rotationally interconnected with a shaft mounting a suitable main sustaining rotor, which goes into aerodynamic autorotation immediately on any very substantial diminution of torque (not just complete failure thereof) by the engine on said rotormounting shaft;

a suitable pressure fluid pump (continually driven in flight at somewhat constant speed by said drive shaft and provided with means suitably regulating pressure of the fluid delivered by said pump provided with a suitable bypass conduit, in which is installed an overflow valve actuated by a resiliently flexible spring) delivering fluid under somewhat constant pressure through a conduit to the inlet of a tilt-sensitive control valve mechanism consisting of;

a body member fixed within the fuselage and having formed within said body a cylindrical cavity, whose rotational axis therein is substantially perpendicular to the vertical plane including the longitudinal axis of said fuselage, and whose two vertical sidewalls have somewhat smaller cylindrical holes on the same axis therethrough respectively serving as substantially fluidtight bearings for the respective opposite cylindrical shanks of two cylindrical valve members pivotally oscillatable on the same axis in said cylindrical cavity, at the upper midpoint of which is the inlet from the aforesaid pressure fluid conduit leading from the pump, and at the bottom of which is an outlet (spaced laterally from said inlet slightly) through the bottom of said body member connected with the intake conduit of the pump body for recirculating said fluid, when such fluid is not flowing under pressure through one of the two outlets from said cavity in its respective front and rear walls of the body member leading through suitable conduits to the respective cavities in the opposed halves of a cylinder, which is reciprocably actuated for variation of the collective pitch of the blades of an auxiliary tail control rotor, when fluid under pressure flows into one of said cylinder compartments from its respective connected conduit after having passed through the two cylindrical valve members consisting of (1) a larger tubular cylindrical valve member, whose exterior snugly fits the cavity of the enclosing body member, and whose interior cylindrical diameter snugly fits the cylindrical exterior of the smaller said cylindrical member telescoped by it, one end of which is closed and has attached thereto integrally the cylindrical shank of that valve member, on the outer tip of which is rigidly attached a lever of suitable length provided with a spring-actuated handgrip whereby the pilot can oscillate said outer tubular valve member around its axis in its enclosing cylindrical cavity in said body member and also can keep said outer valve member disposed rotationally at any suitable posture within said cavity by virtue of elective contact of the spring-actuated handgrip mechanism with a slightly corrugated quadrant rigidly attached to said body member for determining by the pilot whether fluid will flow to one or the other of the alternative compartments of said cylinder regulating collective pitch of the blades of the tail rotor and thereby determining whether the aircraft will move forward or rearward or hover (or move vertically in response to variation of the engine'"'"''"'"'s torque on its drive shaft having an overrunning clutch) at any time as desired by the pilot by virtue of longitudinal tilt control of the fuselage with respect to the horizon by variations of the amount of thrust of said auxiliary tail rotor, which simultaneously is controlled by flow of the same pressure fluid through the smaller telescoped said cylindrical valve member, whose conduits therethrough work in cooperative conjunction with the conduits through the larger telescoping valve member, and whose disposition therein rotationally is determined by tilt-sensitive means employing a continually vertically disposed lever of quite considerable length, the upper tip of which is rigidly attached to the outer tip of the cylindrical shank of said smaller telescoped cylindrical valve member, and to the lower tip of which is rigidly attached a sphere of quite considerable weight containing a pair of gyros, rotatably mounted on the same axis as that of the vertically disposed lever from which the enclosing hollow sphere hangs as a pendulum, and rotated in flight in opposite directions around their common axis by electric motor armatures mounted on the respective shafts of said gyros (mounted rotatably in suitable antifriction bearings permitting high rotational speeds) in said sphere and connected by suitable insulated electric current transmitting wires with the respectively suitable pole posts of an electric battery, which is charged with electricity at intervals by a generator operating in conjunction with the engine in flight.

2. A rotary wing aircraft employing in continued workable cooperative conjunction the following:

a fuselage on which is mounted (through an overrunning clutch as well as one manually operated) an engine usually turning (in powered flight) a drive shaft in rotational connection (through suitable gears) with an upright shaft mounting a main sustaining rotor;

a tubular bracket somewhat rigidly mounted on said fuselage, through whose exterior wall said bracket protrudes rearward in longitudinal disposition with respect to said fuselage but at an angle with respect to the longitudinal axis thereof in flight;

a tubular housing extending through said tubular bracket, in which said tubular housing is pivotally oscillatable, and having rigidly attached to its rear tip a closed gear box, to which also is rigidly attached a second shorter tubular housing disposed at somewhat right angles to the first said tubular housing disposed longitudinally with respect to the line of forward flight of said fuselage through said tubular bracket;

a drive shaft extending through the first said tubular housing, in which said drive shaft, rotationally interconnected with the mounting shaft of the main sustaining rotor by suitable means, is suitably mounted rotatably in antifriction opposed bearing assemblies that prevent movement of the shaft axially with respect to its substantially enclosing tubular housing, beyond the rear tip of which and inside the said gear box there is rigidly mounted on the rear tip of said drive shaft a bevel gear, whose teeth intermesh with the teeth of a second bevel gear rigidly mounted on the upper tip of a second shaft extending through the second shorter tubular housing, provided with suitable opposed antifriction bearing assemblies therein in which said second shaft is rotatable but cannot move axially with respect to the said shorter tubular housing, beyond the lower tip of which there is rigidly mounted on the said second shaft a suitable airfoil-bladed rotor, whose hub is oscillatable within limits on an axis perpendicular to the rotational axis of the mounting shaft but has means tending to keep the orbital path of said blades substantially perpendicular to said rotational axis, which as a result of the weight of said auxiliary rotor, its mounting shaft, and the aforesaid second shorter tubular housing tends to remain (during normal flight in which the craft is sustained by the power of the engine) substantially in a vertical plane including the axis through said tubular bracket of the longitudinally disposed tubular housing of the somewhat horizontally disposed drive shaft, which tends in flight to rotate at somewhat constant speed (by virtue of rotational interconnection of said drive shaft with the mounting shaft of said main sustaining rotor) regardless of whether the engine is operating at full power capacity, at only partial capacity, or not at all;

means, located entirely inside the fuselage and forward of said tubular bracket, attached to the tubular housing pivotally mounted through said tubular bracket, wherEby the pilot can oscillate pivotally said tubular housing freely through almost 180* and thereby can swing the auxiliary rotor suspended from said gear box rigidly attached to said longitudinally disposed tubular housing in the appropriate direction with respect to the vertical plane including the longitudinal axis of the fuselage that the weight of the auxiliary control rotor (pivotally mounted through said tubular bracket somewhat rigidly attached to the fuselage) will exert a torque around the longitudinal axis of the fuselage tending to preserve lateral stability of the aircraft in the same steering oscillation by the pilot of that tubular housing through said tubular bracket) of the longitudinally disposed tubular housing that disposes the axis of the rotating shaft mounting the blades of the auxiliary steering rotor at a suitable angle with respect to the vertical plane including the longitudinal axis of the fuselage that the horizontal vector force derived from the thrust of the blades of that auxiliary rotor will tend to move the tail of the aircraft in the opposite direction from that toward which the pilot wishes the nose of the fuselage to move around the vertical axis of the aircraft;

tilt-sensitive means whereby pitch of the blades of said auxiliary tail rotor is varied collectively and on special occasions reversed (entirely independent of pitch adjusting means of the main sustaining rotor blades) to maintain any desired longitudinal attitude of the fuselage with respect to the horizon, irrespective of lateral swinging of the auxiliary rotor (with respect to the vertical plane including the axis of said long tubular housing in said bracket) through at arc of at least 60* in the process of steering the aircraft by the pilot, who for very short periods of time can swing said auxiliary rotor through almost 180* around said bracket axis, even though vertical lift by the auxiliary tail rotor cannot be maintained in such emergencies at the equal right and left greater angles of oscillation; and

means whereby the pilot at his election instantaneously can adjust said tilt-sensitive mechanism controlling collective pitch of the blades of the auxiliary tail control rotor to vary the longitudinal tilt of the fuselage with respect to the horizon (irrespective of whether a gyro in said mechanism is operating effectively or not at all) and thereby can determine at any time the vertical lift of said auxiliary tail rotor (irrespective of very substantial pivotal oscillation of the mounting tubular housing in its tubular mounting bracket through about 60* to determine whether the aircraft will move forward or rearward, or vertically in response to tilting of the longitudinal tilting of the mounting shaft of the main sustaining rotor, whose axis is otherwise fixed with respect to the fuselage.

3. A rotary wing aircraft specified in claim 2 and more specifically employing in continued workable cooperative conjunction the following:

a somewhat horizontally disposed generally cylindrical fuselage having substantially hemispherical end wall-tips of somewhat the same diameter as the generally cylindrical intermediate sections of the fuselage to which said hemispherical end walls are rigidly attached;

at least two inverted U-shaped tubular fuselage frame members, one of which is located adjacent the vertical lateral plane at which the hemispherical rear end wall of the fuselage is joined to the generally cylindrical intermediate segment thereof, and another one of which is correspondingly located adjacent the hemispherical front end wall of the fuselage, which is supported by said inverted U-shaped frame members, whose upright parallel lower segments extend somewhat vertically through holes in the fuselage exterior wall at points of greatest width thereof and have their lower tips attached rigidly to parallel tubular segments of a generally longitudinally disposed landing framework, suitably spaced below the fuselage, having multiple jOining cross members rigidly spacing said parallel tubular segments of the landing framework, whose rear slightly upward-tilted tips are somewhat farther spaced from each other rearward of the points at which the lower tips of the inverted U-shaped tubular fuselage frame members are rigidly attached to said parallel tubular landing frame segments;

mounted suitably on the fuselage an engine whose drive shaft, provided with a conventional well known to the art overrunning clutch transmitting power in only one rotational direction as well as with a conventional (well known to the art) manually operable clutch, is in rotational connection with a somewhat cylindrical retainer mounting a beveled ring gear and being rotatably mounted in tapered roller bearing opposed assemblies mounted (on an axis perpendicular to the vertical plane including the longitudinal axis of the fuselage) in a central gear box somewhat rigidly fixed in the fuselage about midway between the hemispherical tips of the fuselage and adjacent the roof thereof, said ring gear retainer having bored through it a suitable cylindrical hole (on the same rotational axis) provided with axially disposed grooves in said somewhat cylindrical retainer for receiving axially splined inner adjacent tips of a pair of horizontally and laterally disposed drive shafts, which are inserted through corresponding right and left holes of suitable diameter in the sidewalls of the fuselage (located adjacent the edges of the laterally somewhat arcuate roof of the fuselage) and through respective right and left tubular housings (having vertical perforated annular flanges rigidly attached to the tips thereof) interposed between the correspondingly perforated walls of the fuselage and the respective sidewalls of said gear box, to each of which respectively said tubular housings of said substantially aligned drive shafts are rigidly bolted by said perforated flanges thereof, thereby rigidly spacing the fuselage sidewalls from each other and also preventing rotation of the tubular housings with respect thereto while simultaneously maintaining the position of said central gear box in the fuselage; and

inversely corresponding very strong and almost rigid right and left outrigger framework of minimum weight mounted on each side of the said fuselage consisting of the following;

an outer normally horizontally disposed lateral tubular drive shaft housing (substantially aligned with the rotational axis of the said ring gear retainer in the central gear box and with the opposed right and left drive shafts whose adjacent tips having axially disposed splines are suitably mounted therein with sufficient looseness of fit to prevent vibrational slapping of said shafts in their multiple antifriction bearing assemblies, if said outer horizontally disposed lateral drive shaft housings cannot be kept in perfect alignment), whose inner tip (having a vertical perforated annular flange rigidly attached thereto) is somewhat rigidly attached to the sidewall of the fuselage, and whose expanded outer tip (containing a suitable radial axial thrust antifriction bearing assembly) having a perforated vertical annular flange is bolted rigidly to an outside substantially closed gear box, to whose upper face is rigidly bolted the substantially horizontal annular flange of the expanded lower tip of an upright tubular housing of quite substantial length having an expanded upper tip in which is mounted an opposing axial thrust radial antifriction bearing assembly immediately below a suitable airfoil bladed rotor mounted on the upper tip of a shaft suitably mounted through said upright tubular housing in said pair of opposed bearing assemblies;

a vertical bisected cylindrical mounting sleeve, whose respective approximate halves have perforated parallel flanges (integrally attached thereto) through whose corresponding holes in said flanges are inserted horizontal bolts, whose nuts on the threaded tips thereof mount the joined bisected sleeve somewhat rigidly around the upper half oF the upright tubular housing, provided with a hole therein into which extends the tip of a stud bolt screwed through a corresponding hole in the outer half of said mounting sleeve, to whose opposed inner half is rigidly attached the upper tip of a diagonally disposed angle-bracing frame member, whose lower inner tip is rigidly attached to the above-mentioned outer horizontal lateral tubular housing intermediate the tips thereof and to the upper tip of a substantially aligned diagonally disposed tubular truss frame member situated below said horizontal tubular housing, to which also is somewhat rigidly attached the upper tip of said tubular truss member, whose lower tip is somewhat rigidly attached to the adjacent one of the said parallel tubular landing frame members about midway between the points of attachment thereto of the lower tips of the inverted U-shaped fuselage frame members;

a rearwardly disposed tubular bracing member (diagonally disposed with respect to vertical as horizontal planes including the longitudinal axis of the fuselage as well as with respect to a vertical plane including the axes of the aforesaid upright tubular housings in which are mounted the rotor-mounting shafts) whose upper outer forward tip is attached somewhat rigidly to the aforesaid bisected cylindrical mounting sleeve, and whose inner lower rear tip is somewhat rigidly attached to the wall of the fuselage and its enclosed inverted U-shaped tubular frame member adjacent the plane at which the hemispherical rear tip of the fuselage is joined to the generally cylindrical intermediate section thereof at somewhat the same level as the aforesaid horizontal lateral tubular drive shaft housing;

a second forwardly disposed slightly conical tubular bracing frame member whose upper outer rear tip is somewhat rigidly attached to the aforesaid mounting sleeve, and whose lower inner forward tip is somewhat rigidly attached to the wall of the fuselage and to its inverted U-shaped interior frame member (adjacent the plane at which the hemispherical forward wall-tip of the fuselage is joined to the generally cylindrical intermediate section thereof and at somewhat the same level as the aforesaid horizontal lateral tubular housing of the drive shaft), the aforesaid conical tubular tensional bracing member between two fixed points of attachment of the tips thereof being disposed longitudinally through and serving as the spar of a fixed wing airfoil, whose chord is somewhat greater at its inner lower and forward point of attachment to the fuselage than at its outer upper rear point of attachment to the fuselage than at its outer upper rear point of attachment to said cylindrical mounting sleeve somewhat rigidly attached to the upper

4. A rotary wing aircraft specified in claim 1 having a fuselage on which are rotatably mounted a pair of main sustaining rotors turning in opposite directions and mounted side-by-side at equal distances from the vertical plane containing the longitudinal axis of the fuselage on upright shafts rotationally connected, by means of suitable interconnecting gears and shafts mounting said gears respectively, with each other and with the rotationally free segment of an overrunning clutch driven in one rotational direction at times by an engine'"'"''"'"'s driveshaft, said aircraft also employing in continued workable cooperative conjunction a pressure fluid pump as specified in claim 1 driven at somewhat constant speed, by a shaft in rotational connection with the mounting shafts of said side-by-side mounted main sustaining rotors, and furnishing fluid in suitable amount at suitable somewhat constant pressure to the inlet of a cylindrical cavity in the body member of a control valve assembly mechanism having a pair of cylindrical valve members (pivotally oscillatable in said cylindrical cavity), one of which is controlled by tilt-sensitive means and the other of which is pivotally adjustable manually by the pilot, but both of which are pivotally oscillatable on the same axis, which is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the fuselage (rather than perpendicular to the vertical plane including the longitudinal axis of the fuselage, as was specified for the cylindrical cavity and valves mounted therein for controlling pitch of the auxiliary tail rotor in claim 1), whose lateral stability and tilt are controlled by a pressure fluid actuated cylinder (having the interior compartments in the respective ends thereof connected by suitable flexible conduits with the pair of opposing outlets from the body member of said pair of cylindrical valves, just as specified in claim 1) regulating collective pitch of the blades of one of the side-by-side mounted main sustaining rotors.

5. A rotary wing aircraft employing in continued workable cooperative conjunction:

a fuselage body member on which are rotatably mounted a pair of main sustaining rotors turning in opposite directions (and having inverse right and left airfoil blades corresponding in chord configuration to said rotational directions) mounted side-by-side, at equal distances from the vertical plane containing the longitudinal axis of the somewhat horizontally disposed fuselage, on upright shafts rotationally interconnected (by means of suitable interconnecting gears and shafts mounting said gears respectively) with eacH other and with the rotationally free segment of an overrunning clutch driven in one direction of rotation at times by the drive shaft of an engine, said aircraft employing as a primary means maintaining lateral stability of the craft in flight a rotor, mounted on each of the said pair of rotatably mounted mounting shafts respectively, having;

a primary hub segment rigidly mounted on the upper tip of its respective mounting shaft;

a secondary hub segment, providing pivotal cantilever mounting thereon of its blades, flexibly mounted on the primary hub segment by means permitting oscillation of the secondary hub segment with respect to the primary hub segment within limits on an axis perpendicular to the rotational axis of the mounting shaft by which it is rotated, and means gradually and progressively limiting such oscillation (with respect to the primary hub member and its mounting shaft) that the gradual means of limiting oscillation does not cause excessive vibration of the mounting shaft and the pylon in which said shaft is mounted in suitable opposed antifriction radial-axial thrust bearing assemblies, but at the same time has sufficient stiffness of its resiliency that, in conjunction with the centrifugal force of the blades rotating at sufficiently high speed, the gyroscopic tendencies of those rapidly rotating blades are imparted gradually during each phase of their orbits to the respective rotating mounting shafts, thereby maintaining lateral stability of the aircraft, even though (as a result of the rotation of said paired shafts in opposite directions) those shafts respectively have their lateral precessional tendencies (exerted on the means mounting them on the fuselage), as well as their reactionary torques resulting from power applied in varying amounts by the drive shaft of the engine in ascending and descending, completely cancelled by means of the fuselage on which those shafts are rotatably mounted, whenever the longitudinal tilt of the fuselage with respect to the horizon is varied by the pilot by means at his disposal.

6. A rotary wing aircraft specified in claim 5 in which the secondary hub member attached to the primary hub member by resiliently flexible means is universally oscillatable on multiple axes with respect to the rotatable shaft on whose upper tip it is mounted at approximately the same level as the primary hub member (rigidly attached to said shaft), around which the secondary hub member is suitably spaced and consists of an outer substantially rigid annular member, on which is provided pivotal substantially cantilever mounting of cylindrical roots (at least almost in alignment with the respective longitudinal axis of the airfoil blade to which each is respectively attached almost but not quite rigidly) of more than two blades rotating in substantially the same orbital path around the mounting shaft only very slightly from a plane perpendicular to the rotational axis of said mounting shaft by which said blades are rotated by an engine in normal powered flight.

7. A substantially foolproof vertical lift aircraft, capable of operation by any sensible person who can operate an automobile, operable by a skilled pilot in reverse direction translational flight at speeds up to 100 miles per hour, operable with complete safety in forward translational flight at speeds up to well in excess of 200 miles per hour, and employing in continual workable cooperative conjunction the following:

a generally cylindrical fuselage having front and rear tips suitably streamlined for horizontal flight, in which said fuselage is disposed at generally horizontal posture;

aligned tubular horizontal drive shaft housings, projecting laterally from the fuselage in the upper one-fourth thereof, having attached fixedly to the respective outer tips thereof gear boxes, to whose respective upper faces are fixedly attached upright tubular cylindrical housings of contrarotating shafts, mounted in suitable antifriction bearings, on whose respective lower tips are seCured bevel gears whose speed reduction teeth mesh with the teeth of smaller gears secured on the outer tips of drive shafts rotatably mounted through the aligned horizontal lateral tubular housings fixedly attached to the fuselage, in which is mounted an engine having its drive shaft provided with a manually operable clutch as well as a conventional overrunning clutch rotationally interconnected with the drive shafts in the horizontal lateral tubular housing, which form the primary components of right and left open frameworks, permitting almost free passage of air therethrough in all directions, fixedly attached to the sides of the fuselage and providing with absolute minimum weight the maximum stiffness but not quite rigidity with respect to the fuselage of the mounting of said upright tubular housings of the contrarotating rotor-mounting shafts, on the upper tips of which are mounted inversely constructed right and left rotor hubs each of which respectively employs;

an inner segment, fixedly attached to the upper tip of its shaft slightly above the antifriction bearing assembly mounted in the expanded upper tip of the upright tubular cylindrical housing, and an outer annular segment of slightly larger inner diameter than the inner segment, around which it is rotatable within fixed limits of several degrees, and with respect to which it is universally oscillatable within gradually restricting limits of a few degrees, provided by a resiliently flexible mounting on the inner segment of the almost rigid outer annular segment, in tubular cylindrical brackets of which are mounted at least three airfoil blades, whose respective cylindrical roots are disposed at least almost in alignment with their longitudinal axes and have at least almost cantilever pivotal mountings in their respective brackets, in which each of the blade roots are pivotal within fixed equal limits of a few degrees, thereby permitting variation of the angle of attack of each of the rotor blades cyclically as well as collectively in response to amount of torque of the engine on the rotor-mounting shaft at any time exerted by a frame, fixedly attached to the said mounting shaft immediately below the inner segment of the hub attached thereto, having fingers, equally spaced around said frame at equal distances from the mounting shaft, on which are mounted the rotationally rear tips of the same number of coiled compression springs, whose rotationally forward tips are mounted respectively on fingers attached fixedly to the blade roots, which simultaneously are rotated around the rotational axis of the mounting shaft by the expansion forces of the combined coiled compression springs, which however act individually also to permit individual cyclical variations in the angles of attack of the rotating blades, which go into immediate aerodynamic autorotation on decreases of torque of the engine to such extent that the rotors will not support the craft without slowly descending.

8. A rotary winged aircraft specified in claim 7 having substantially fixedly mounted in the rear one third of the fuselage a tubular cylindrical bracket, projecting rearwardly and upwardly therefrom at a suitable angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the fuselage less than 45*, through which bracket is pivotally oscillatable within a range up to 180* a tubular cylindrical housing provided with suitable antifriction bearings, in which rotates a drive shaft, on the front tip of which is secured a beveled gear rotationally interconnected by suitable gear gears and shafts with the paired rotors mounted on the outer tips of the open outrigger frameworks, and on the rear tip of which is secured a second beveled gear rotating inside a gear box, fixedly attached to the rear end of the tubular housing that is oscillatable within said fixed bracket and having fixedly attached to the lower side thereof a second tubular housing of another drive shaft of shorter length, on the upper tip of which is secured a bevel gear whose teeth mesh with those of the other bevel gear in said gear box, and on the lower tip of which is mounted a suitable control rotor having airfoil blades of suitable relatively shorter length rotationally interconnected at all times with the paired rotors mounted on the outrigger frameworks, which control rotor, having blades whose angles of attack are adjustable and also reversible by tilt-sensitive means in the fuselage as well as by means at the handy election of the pilot to determine whether he wants the craft tilted to travel translationally forward to rearward or vertically, serves to control longitudinal posture of the fuselage, when the rotational axis of the shaft mounting the control rotor on its lower tip is in the vertical plane containing the oscillatory axis of the bracket in the rear segment of the fuselage through which the longitudinally disposed tubular drive shaft housing is oscillatable by means at the convenient disposal of the pilot, who can oscillate said housing and thereby the gear box fixedly attached to the rear end thereof to swing the control rotor from side to side with respect to said vertical plane beneath the axis of said tubular cylindrical housing through said fixed bracket, thereby steering the aircraft by shifting laterally the thrust of the normally lifting tail control rotor from its normal vertical posture, to which it will tend to fall by virtue of the weight of the parts attached to the lower side of said rear gear box, and simultaneously tending, by shifting laterally in the opposite direction the weight of the attachments secured to the lower side of said rear gear box, to augment lateral stability and banking of the aircraft, whose primary means of preserving lateral stability in the gyroscopic action of the substantially cantilever mounted blades of the side-by-side mounted contrarotating rotors mounted on substantially parallel shafts on the outrigger frameworks, to which lateral stability is imparted by said gyroscopic forces on the resilient attachment of the outer annular components of those paired right and left rotor hubs to their respective inner components fixedly attached to the upper tips of those mounting shafts in said open outrigger frameworks.

9. A vertical lift aircraft employing in continually workable cooperative conjunction the following features:

a long fuselage at least almost but not necessarily absolutely horizontally disposed in flight, whether it be hovering or moving horizontally in translational flight;

a pair of inversely constructed right and left open outrigger frameworks, fixedly mounted laterally at the sides of said fuselage in the rear half thereof, said open frameworks being constructed with minimum weight affording maximum sturdiness but not quite rigidity for rotatably mounting with little vibration on the outer upper tips thereof upright contrarotating shafts, on the upper respective tips of which are mounted, at equal distances from the vertical plane containing the longitudinal axis of the fuselage, inversely corresponding right and left hubs for mounting thereon respectively right and left designed airfoil rotors, whose relatively long primarily weight-sustaining blades of equal length are staggered with respect to blades of the same number mounted in the opposite hub, so that the orbital paths of the respective blades of the two said rotors may overlap to some extent, although it is not absolutely necessary that the outer tips of the blades of those two inversely paired rotors reach inwardly to the vertical plane including the longitudinal axis of the fuselage, with respect to which the tips of the blades of said paired rotors travel forward in their orbital phases adjacent said fuselage, beside which air is free to pass upward or downward as well as horizontally through said paired open frameworks with as much freedom as possible for such sturdy outriggers;

a second pair of inversely constructed almost completely open outrigger frameworks, mounted laterally at the sides of said fuselage in the forward one-Third thereof, said at least almost open frameworks being constructed with minimum weight to afford maximum stiffness but not quite rigidity for rotatably mounting on the outer tips thereof upright contrarotating shafts, on the upper respective tips of which are mounted, at equal distances from the vertical plane containing the longitudinal axis of the fuselage but at appreciably less equal distances from said vertical plane than the equal distances at which the first said inversely paired rotors are mounted on the outer tips of their respective right and left outrigger frameworks mounted on the sides of the rear half of said fuselage, two inversely corresponding right and left hubs for mounting thereon respectively right and left designed airfoil bladed rotors having rotationally staggered blades of equal suitable length rotating in opposite directions from the rotational directions of the respective rotors mounted on the rear half of said fuselage, so that in forward translational flight, employing all four of said rotors mounted on shafts rotationally interconnected with each other and with the freewheeling segment of a driving overrunning clutch attached to the drive shaft of a prime-mover engine mounted in the fuselage, a part of the downdraft of air from blades of each one of the forward mounted pair of rotors will tend to detract to some extent from the excessive lift of the blades of the rear pair of rotors during the phases of the orbits of those blades of the rear mounted pair of rotors adjacent each other and the fuselage, to the rear half of which their respective wider open outrigger frameworks are fixedly attached; and

means mounted in the rear tip of the fuselage tending to control longitudinal posture of the fuselage with respect to the horizon at the election of the pilot as well as enabling the pilot for steering purposes to rotate the rear tip of the fuselage around the vertical axis of the craft, which requires no horizontal countertorque force on the fuselage to compensate torque of the driving engine on the respective four rotors, which are contrarotated in pairs so that torque of the engine'"'"''"'"'s drive shaft on one of the rotationally interconnected rotors is compensated by torque of the engine on the inversely paired rotor of the same size turning at the same speed in the opposite rotational direction on the other side of the fuselage.

10. A rotary-winged aircraft employing in continued workable and safe cooperative conjunction the following features:

a generally horizontally disposed fuselage having a more or less cylindrical midsection with front and rear tips suitably streamlined to facilitate rapid horizontal flight of the craft having mounted at the sides of the fuselage and fixedly attached thereto uprightly disposed paired tubular cylindrical housings, in each of which there is rotatably mounted, in axial-radial antifriction bearing assemblies at each expanded tip thereof, a shaft having a suitable airfoil-bladed rotor on the upper tip thereof, the axes of said contrarotating rotor-mounting shafts being disposed symmetrically with respect to and at equal distances from the vertical plane including the longitudinal axis of the fuselage in an upright lateral plane at right angles to said longitudinal axis of the fuselage at the point slightly forward of the gravitational center of the aircraft;

a prime-mover engine located in the fuselage having its drive shaft, provided with an overrunning clutch operating in only one rotational direction in addition to a primary clutch operable at the election of the operating pilot, rotationally interconnected, through suitable tubular housing provided with means for retaining lubricants, by means of shaft and gear mounted thereon with a speed-reducing gear rotatably mounted in a gear box fixedly mounted in the fuselage adjacent the arcuate roof thereof and midway between the axes of the paired contrarotating uprightly disposed shafts, on whose upper tips are mounted the airfoil-bladed rotors, whose blades retreat rearwardly above the fuselage during forward translational flight, and on whose lower tips are fixedly mounted speed reduction gears rotationally interconnected by means of shaft and gear rotatably mounted through suitable housings with the overrunning clutch of the drive shaft of the engine; and

most particularly including a tail rotor assembly including substantially the following;

a relatively long tubular cylindrical bracket at least almost fixedly attached to the fuselage with the longitudinal axis of said tubular bracket being substantially in a vertical plane including the longitudinal axis of the fuselage and extending upwardly and rearwardly therefrom at a suitable angle between vertical and horizontal less than 45* from the horizon in forward translational flight;

a tubular cylindrical housing extending through said tubular bracket, in which said tubular cylindrical housing of a drive shaft extending therethrough is pivotally oscillatable around said axis of said bracket by as much as 180* by means of a steering lever device fixedly attached to the forward tip of said tubular housing and conveniently operable almost instantaneously by the pilot in the fuselage, in which there is fixedly attached to the rear face of the previously mentioned centrally located gear box, enclosing the speed-reducing gear rotationally interconnected with the paired upright contrarotating rotor-mounting shafts, the expanded forward tip of a shorter and smaller diameter aligned second tubular housing, around which, as well as through the previously mentioned fixed tubular cylindrical bracket, is pivotally oscillatable the longer first said tubular cylindrical housing of the longitudinally disposed still longer drive shaft, on whose forward tip inside the central gear box is secured a bevel gear rotationally interconnecting by means of shafts and gears mounted thereon with the paired upright rotor-mounting shafts of the sustaining rotors, and on the rear tip of which there is secured another bevel gear inside a rear gear box fixedly attached to the rear end of the longer said tubular cylindrical drive shaft housing, in the rear tip of which is a suitable radial-axial antifriction bearing assembly rotatably mounting the rear tip of said longer longitudinally disposed drive shaft, whose forward tip is rotatably mounted in a suitable radial-axial antifriction bearing assembly installed in the expanded forward tip of the smaller shorter second said fixed tubular housing of said longitudinally disposed drive shaft of a tail rotor rotationally interconnected with the paired sustaining rotors by means of the longitudinally disposed drive shaft meshing with the teeth of a larger speed-reducing bevel gear inside the said rear gear box and secured on the upper tip of another rotor-mounting shaft, disposed at substantially right angles to the oscillatory axis of the longitudinally disposed tubular cylindrical housing in its fixed bracket and thereby at a suitable large angle from vertical by virtue of the fact that said tail rotor-mounting shaft is rotatably mounted in suitable radial-axial antifriction bearing assemblies installed in the expanded upper and lower tips of a tubular cylindrical housing, whose expanded upper tip is fixedly attached to the bottom wall of the rear gear box fixedly attached to the rear end of the longitudinally disposed tubular cylindrical housing oscillatable in said fixed tubular bracket at said angle less than 45* from horizontal posture;

suitable annular washers conveniently made of felt installed around each of the drive shafts inside the respective gear boxes and tubular cylindrical housings attached thereto and enclosing the drive shafts to prevent excessive leakage therefrom of gear and bearing lubricants installed in said gear boxes;

means whereby the pilot conveniently and substantially instantaneously can steer the craft from side to side by oscillating the long longitudinally disposed tubular housing in its substantially fixed tubuLar cylindrical bracket, thereby swinging the blades of the tail rotor, mounted on the lower tip of the shaft mounted through the tubular housing fixedly attached to the bottom of the rear gear box, beneath said oscillatory axis of said drive shaft housing in said bracket through arcs up to 90*, for short periods of time in special emergency circumstances, from the vertical plane including the axes of said continually rotating shafts, when the craft is not being steered around its vertical axis by the pilot, and simultaneously thereby, in the same said steering process controlling a lateral thrust component of the usual lift of the tail control rotor, when its rotational axis is swung from the normal posture in a vertical plane including said oscillator axis of said fixed bracket, shifting the weight of the tail rotor assembly attached to the bottom of the rear gear box in the direction required to augment lateral control of the craft by the pilot in the steering process; and

means whereby the pilot varies collectively the angles of attack of the blades of the tail rotor and thereby controls longitudinal posture with respect to the horizon of the aircraft specified above.

11. A rotary winged aircraft substantially as specified in claim 10 in which there is mounted in the fuselage a hydraulic pump driven continually in flight, regardless of whether the engine may be operating at the moment, by means of one of the shafts rotationally interconnected to the shafts mounting the paired contrarotating right and left sustaining rotors, said pump being employed to circulate a suitable hydraulic fluid under suitable controlled pressure to a cylindrical valve provided with proper ports therethrough and rotationally controlled in oscillation by tilt-sensitive means, whereby such fluid under pressure is supplied through suitable flexible conduits alternately to opposed sides of a diaphragm in the midsection of a cylinder axially reciprocable within limits whereby is controlled collectively the angles of attack of the blades of the tail rotor to vary and also reverse the axial thrust of said tail rotor, thereby controlling the longitudinal posture of the fuselage with respect to the horizon regardless of the pilot'"'"''"'"'s pivotal swinging in his steering operation of the tail rotor beneath the axis of the longitudinally disposed tubular housing through the fixed tubular bracket by as much as 30* on each side from the vertical plane including said pivotal axis of the said tubular bracket fixed with respect to the fuselage, in which the aforesaid hydraulic control valve operates in direct association with a second snugly fitting larger telescoping tubular cylindrical control valve, also having proper ports therethrough for conveying said hydraulic fluid thereby and mounted on the same oscillatory axis as the telescoped valve segment whose rotational posture is controlled by tilt-sensitive means, oscillatable in a snugly fitting cylindrical cavity in a valve-mounting body member, fixedly mounted within the fuselage, in which there is, in addition to the snugly fitting holes provided for installation of the cylindrical stems of the two aligned pivotally oscillatable control valves, a conduit leading from the conventional hydraulic pump, well known to the art and provided with the usual spring actuated overflow valve regulating pressure of the hydraulic fluid maintained in said conduit in the body member, to a conduit in the larger telescoping tubular cylindrical control valve, subject to pivotal oscillatory adjustment by the pilot at his immediate election by his fixing on a quadrant a lever attached to the horizontally disposed stem of said valve whereby he determines the desired longitudinal tilt of the fuselage for determining whether the craft will move forward or backward or otherwise, and thereby to a diverging conduit of the hydraulic fluid through the tilt-sensitive smaller telescoped cylindrical valve member, whose diverging outlets suitably spaced from each other alternately cOnnect to one or the other of a pair of conduits through the wall of the larger telescoping tubular cylindrical control valve, whose outlets from said paired conduits through the wall of said larger valve remain in continual contact with conduits from the cylindrical cavity in said fixed body member through the wall of that body member provided with nipples in conjunction with said outlets connected by flexible conduits to the respective fluid inlets and outlets of the said cylinder collectively controlling pitch of the blades of said tail rotor, thereby determining the exact amount of thrust of said tail rotor necessary to provide, irrespective of the pilot'"'"''"'"'s swinging of the tail rotor beneath the axis of the fixed mounting bracket to change direction of thrust of the tail rotor in his normal steering process, a vertical component force from the tail rotor necessary to provide the exact longitudinal tilt of the fuselage with respect to the horizon elected by the pilot at any time by virtue of the determination through which one of the two outlets of the divergent conduit through the inner telescoped valve will flow the circulating hydraulic fluid to one of the two respective inlets-outlets adjacent each end of the cylinder regulating collectively the angles of attack of the blades of the tail rotor in direct response to any necessary flow of the circulating fluid through the two completely cooperative valves, one of which is controlled by tilt-sensitive means, and the other one of which is controlled by the pilot, who also may in emergency assume control of the tilt-sensitive valve at any time to determine directly the flow of the circulating fluid necessary to regulate pitch of the blades of the tail rotor and thereby determine longitudinal posture of the fuselage, when desired for any possible reason, without any need for alteration of the hydraulic control mechanisms.

12. A rotary-winged aircraft substantially as specified in claim 10, in which the airfoil blades of each of the paired contrarotating sustaining rotors are rotationally staggered by a suitable number of degrees to make them intermeshing but nonconflicting with the corresponding blades of the other paired rotor, equally spaced from the vertical plane including the longitudinal axis of the generally cylindrical midsection of the fuselage having a laterally arcuate roof, over which the outer segments of said blades rotate rearwardly during forward translational flight of the aircraft.