Toy Airplane

• US 5,087,000 A
• Filed: 03/07/1991
• Issued: 02/11/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/1990
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Taiyo Kogyo Corporation
• Original Assignee: Taiyo Kogyo Corporation
• Inventors: Suto, Shohei
• Primary Examiner(s): Peters, Jr., Joseph F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BIDWELL, ANNE
• Application Number:
  US07/665,804
• Time in Patent Office: 341 Days
• Field of Search: 244/189, 244/190, 244/51, 244/75 R, 446/57, 446/58, 340/825.69, 340/825.72, 340/341.146
• US Class Current: 244/189
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 27/02 Model aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 30/04 using wireless transmission

Abstract

A radio controlled toy airplane has an airframe with a fixed vertical tail plane, a fixed horizontal tail plane, and at least one set of rightside and leftside propellers. The rotational outputs of the propellers are controlled discretely and continuously or in a staged manner, respectively, via a remotely located radio transmitter. This transmitter has two manual control sticks, one for controlling total combined power to the propellers and the other for adjusting the power distribution between the propellers, and in this way flight of the toy airplane is solely controlled by controlling motors which separately drive the propellers. The motors may be battery powered.

Claims

1. A toy airplane, comprising:

an airframe provided with a fixed vertical tail plane and a fixed horizontal tail plane;

two propellers rotatably mounted on opposite sides of the airframe;

rotating means for independently drivably rotating the two propellers;

power output means for controlling the combined total rotational output of the two propellers;

power balance means for adjustably proportioning the distribution of said combined total rotational output between the two propellers;

a radio control system incorporating said power output means and said power balance means for remote control of flight of the airframe;

said rotating means comprising two electric motors, one for each of said propellers;

a battery mounted in said airframe and connected through said radio control system to power said motors;

said radio control system comprising a radio receiver circuit mounted in said airframe, and a transmitter circuit for use remote from said airframe;

said transmitter circuit including a control stick for manually controlling said power output means and a separate control stick for manually controlling said power balance means;

said receiver circuit including a receiver antenna feeding a high-frequency amplifier circuit connected to a mixing circuit also input from a local oscillation circuit, an output from said mixing circuit being fed via an intermediate-frequency amplifier circuit and then an amplitude demodulation circuit to a decoder circuit which outputs in parallel a power control signal and a separate power balance signal; and

said power control signal and said power balance signal being received by a further mixing circuit which in turn produces from these signals two control signals for separately driving said two motors.

2. A toy airplane, comprising:

an airframe provided with a fixed vertical tail plane and a fixed horizontal tail plane;

two propellers rotatably mounted on opposite sides of the airframe;

rotating means for independently drivably rotating the two propellers;

power output means for controlling the combined total rotational output of the two propellers;

power balance means for adjustably proportioning the distribution of said combined total rotational output between the two propellers;

a radio control system incorporating said power output means and said power balance means for remote control of flight of the airframe and;

said airframe being provided with a fixed main plane forwardly of the tail planes and forming a wing extending outwardly on each side of the airframe, said main plane and said horizontal tail plane having no adjustable elevators, and said vertical tail plane having no adjustable rudder.

3. The toy airplane of claim 2, wherein:

said rotating means comprises two electric motors, one for each of said propellers; and

including

a battery mounted in said airframe and connected through said radio control system to power said motors.

4. The toy airplane of claim 3, wherein:

said radio control system comprises a radio receiver circuit mounted in said airframe, and a transmitter circuit for use remote from said airframe; and

said transmitter circuit including a control stick for manually controlling said power output means and a separate control stick for manually controlling said power balance means.

5. The toy airplane of claim 4, wherein said transmitter circuit further includes a clock circuit for generating a basic pulse and outputting to a modulation circuit to provide an input to a high-frequency modulation circuit connected with a high-frequency generating circuit for transmitting radio signals to said radio receiver circuit, said control sticks modifying the output of said clock circuit to said modulation circuit.

6. The toy airplane of claim 4, wherein said receiver circuit including a receiver antenna feeding a high-frequency amplifier circuit connected to a mixing circuit also input from a local oscillation circuit, an output from said mixing circuit being fed via an intermediate-frequency amplifier circuit and then an amplitude demodulation circuit to a decoder circuit which outputs in parallel a power control signal and a separate power balance signal.

7. The toy airplane of claim 2, wherein the airframe has a plurality of vertical tail planes, each being fixed and having no adjustable rudder.

8. A toy airplane, comprising:

a winged fuselage having a fixed tail plane assembly with not a single adjustable elevator or rudder anywhere;

right and left propeller units each having a separate electric motor and being mounted on opposite sides of said winged fuselage;

a control unit accommodated by the winged fuselage and including a circuit for receiving radio control signals; and

said control unit including motor control means, responsive to received radio control signals, for;

(a) operating both of the drive motors in unison by proportionally increasing or decreasing the power to each motor, and

(b) separately varying the power distribution between the two motors to enable either motor to run at higher power than the other,

whereby flight of the winged fuselage is solely controlled by controlling the motors.

9. A toy airplane, comprising:

an airframe having a fixed tail assembly with not a single adjustable elevator or rudder anywhere;

two propeller units, one to a rightside of the airframe and the other to a leftside of the airframe;

each propeller unit including its own electric motor drivingly connected to a rotatable propeller;

a battery accommodated by the airframe for supplying power to the electric motors;

a radio receiver and motor control unit accommodated by the airframe and having two output channels, one output channel (CH1) controlling delivery of total combined power from the battery to both of the motors, and the other output channel (CH2) controlling distribution of this total combined power between the two motors; and

a radio transmitter unit for transmitting radio signals from a remote location to said radio receiver and motor control unit, the radio transmitter unit having two separately operable user controls, one user control for determining and controlling said one output channel (CH1) and the other user control for determining and controlling said other output channel (CH2), whereby flight of the airframe is solely controlled by controlling the two motors.