Method and apparatus enabling a horizontal landing of a flying body

• US 4,408,737 A
• Filed: 07/06/1981
• Issued: 10/11/1983
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/1978
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm GmbH (Mercedes-Benz Group AG)
• Original Assignee: Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm Gesellschaft Mit Beschrankter Haftung
• Inventors: Schwaerzler, Hans
• Primary Examiner(s): Barefoot, Galen L.
• Application Number:
  US06/280,280
• Time in Patent Office: 827 Days
• Field of Search: 244/139, 244/2, 244/49, 244/DIG. 1, 244/110 D, 244/13, 244/142, 244/153 R, 244/113
• US Class Current: 244/110.00D
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 17/80 in association with aircraft, e.g. for braking thereof
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 70/83 using parachutes, balloons or the like

Abstract

A flying body such as an aircraft or a re-entry vehicle is enabled to land substantially horizontally with the aid of one or several glider parachutes also referred to as paragliders, which are stored in an upper body zone and ejected during the landing. The lift capacity of the paraglider is so dimensioned that it replaces the lift loss of the wings due to the low landing speed, whereby the weight of the flying body is kept in equilibrium to the sum of the wing lift and of the paraglider lift. The paraglider resistance or drag is compensated by the engine thrust and an ascending or descending flight is accomplished by modulating the engine thrust.

Claims

1. An apparatus for horizontally landing a flying body having a center of gravity and steering means, comprising paraglider canopy parachute means having a given diameter and being normally stored in a top side portion of the flying body, said parachute means including load suspending means comprising a plurality of load suspending flexible cords divided into at least two groups of load suspending cords, said apparatus further comprising at least two pivot point means (23, 24) including a forward pivot point secured to said flying body forward of said center of gravity and rearward pivot point means secured to said flying body to the rear of said center of gravity, one group of load suspending cords (26) being connected to said forward pivot point (23) and the other group of load suspending cords being connected to said rearward pivot point means, each group of cords having a given constant length such that said one group of load suspending cords connected to the forward pivot point is longer than the other group of load suspending cords connected to the rearward pivot point means, whereby the load exerted by the flying body on the load suspending cords is suspended at least at two axially separated pivot points and so that said given diameter of said paraglider canopy parachute is at least about 70% smaller than the diameter of a conventional parachute for a substantially vertical landing of a comparable load.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said rearward pivot point means comprise two pivot points, one located to the right and the other located to the left of a longitudinal central axis of the flying body, said two rearward pivot points being located in a common plane extending perpendicularly to said longitudinal central axis.