V/STOL biplane aircraft

• US 6,848,649 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2002
• Issued: 02/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Charles Gilpin Churchman
• Original Assignee: Charles Gilpin Churchman
• Inventors: Churchman, Charles Gilpin
• Primary Examiner(s): DINH, TIEN QUANG
• Application Number:
  US10/313,580
• Publication Number:
  US 20030136873A1
• Time in Patent Office: 785 Days
• Field of Search: 244/35.R, 244/12.3, 244/13, 244/34.R, 244/45.R, 244/123, 244/12.2, 244/45.A, 244/103, 244/12.6, 244/6, 244/100.R, 244/54, 244/101, D12/326, D12/327, D12/330, D12/331, D12/337, D12/339
• US Class Current: 244/12.6
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 29/0025 the propellers being fixed relative to the fuselage

Abstract

The present invention is a 2 passenger aircraft capable of vertical and conventional takeoffs and landings, called a jyrodyne. The jyrodyne comprises a central fuselage with biplane-type wings arranged in a negative stagger arrangement, a horizontal ducted fan inlet shroud located at the center of gravity in the top biplane wing, a rotor mounted in the shroud, outrigger wing support landing gear, a forward mounted canard wing and passenger compartment, a multiple vane-type air deflector system for control and stability in VTOL mode, a separate tractor propulsion system for forward flight, and a full-span T-tail. Wingtip extensions on the two main wings extend aft to attach to the T-tail. The powerplants consist of two four cylinder two-stroke reciprocating internal combustion engines. Power from the engines is distributed between the ducted fan and tractor propeller through the use of a drivetrain incorporating two pneumatic clutches, controlled by an automotive style footpedal to the left of the rudder pedals. When depressed, power is transmitted to the ducted fan for vertical lift. When released, power is transmitted to the tractor propeller for forward flight. The aircraft can also takeoff and land in the conventional manner with a much larger payload, and is easily converted to amphibious usage. Landing gear is a bicycle arrangement with outriggers. The aircraft combines twin engines, heavy-duty landing gear, controlled-collapse crashworthy seats with a low stall speed and high resistance to stalls to eliminate any region of the flight regime where an engine or drivetrain failure could cause an uncontrollable crash.

Claims

1. An aircraft capable of both conventional and VTOL flight, comprising:

a fuselage;

a set of canard wings mounted at or below the fuselage at the front of the aircraft;

two sets of wings, mounted in a biplane fashion, the bottom wing mounted so that the wing center of lift is located slightly ahead of the aircraft center of gravity, the top wing is mounted so that its center of lift is located slightly behind the aircraft center of gravity;

the combined center of lift from the two wings occurring at the aircraft center of lift;

landing gear comprised of a main nosewheel and main tail wheel mounted along the longitudinal axis of the fuselage;

two outrigger landing gear mounted on extensions in front of the bottom wings;

an exbedded ducted fan mounted in a large circular opening in the center of said top wing, the exbedded ducted fan including a shroud having a ducted fan bellmouth and a rotor disposed in the shroud, exbedded meaning the duct diameter extends beyond the outer edge of the fuselage at the center of the top wing, said bottom wing having a central opening for the exhaust airstream from the ducted fan and said central opening extending rearward and being larger than the circular opening in the top wing;

a horizontal stabilizer mounted to the rear and above the top wing;

three rudders, one mounted in the central tailfin, and one in each of the two sidefins;

a central tailfin mounted above and behind the ducted fan bellmouth, supporting the horizontal stabilizer;

said central tailfin mounted on top of the rear third of the fuselage to form a “

T”

tail with the horizontal stabilizer;

airfoil-shaped, near-vertical wing support panel structures called midriggers connecting said biplane wings to each other, the midriggers positioned longitudinally tangent to the outer radius of the large circular opening in the center of said top wing; and

two near vertical, airfoil-shaped planar support structures called sidefins connecting said biplane wings together at the wingtips, said two sidefins extending to further connect to the wingtips of the horizontal stabilizer, wherein

said central tailfin and two sidefins have a total surface area from 25% to 60% of the biplane wing surface area;

the total surface area of the three rudders ranging between 25% and 60% of said total surface area of the central tailfin and two sidefins; and

said horizontal stabilizer having a surface area in a range of from 25-60% of the biplane wing surface area.

2. The aircraft of claim 1, further comprising a vertically oriented propulsion shaft connected to the rotor, said propulsion shaft projecting downward into the center of the fuselage;

and located at the aircraft center of lift of the biplane wings and at the aircraft center of gravity, to provide vertical lift propulsion;

wherein

the exbedded ducted fan shroud has an inside diameter extending beyond the diameter of the fuselage;

the ducted fan shroud bellmouth having a radius of up to 0.3 times the ducted fan diameter;

a the ducted fan shroud being a direct structural support for the top wing, and indirectly for the bottom wing.

3. The aircraft of claim 2, with fin control over pitch, yaw and roll while in vertical take off and landing(VTOL) mode and further comprising;

center of gravity adjustment pitch deflectors to provide for adjustments to the center of VTOL lift;

exbedded airpath roll/yaw control vanes to provide aircraft control of yaw and roll while in the VTOL mode of flight, said vanes mounted outside the fuselage while inside the diameter of the ducted fan;

imbedded and canted pitch control vanes to provide aircraft control of pitch while in the VTOL mode of flight;

three to four mid-section anti-torque airfoil-shaped vanewings, providing horizontal thrust to create a torque effect opposite to that produced by the aircraft engines and ducted fan rotor.

4. The aircraft claim 2, further comprising horizontal propulsive means to provide forward motion including a tractor propeller mounted over the rear section of of the ducted fan shroud bellmouth;

to assist aerodynamic controls in compensation to the pitch up experienced in ducted fan aircraft in the transition from VTOL to conventional flight.

5. The aircraft of claim 2, further comprising horizontal propulsive means to provide forward motion including a pusher propeller mounted over the rear section of the ducted fan shroud bellmouth, to assist aerodynamic controls in compensation to the pitch up experienced in ducted fan aircraft in the transition from VTOL to conventional flight.

6. The aircraft of claim 2, further comprising horizontal propulsive means to provide forward motion including a turbofan jet engine mounted over the rear section of the ducted fan shroud bellmouth, to assist aerodynamic controls in compensation to the pitch up experienced in ducted fan aircraft in the transition from VTOL to conventional flight.

7. The aircraft of claim 2, further comprising horizontal propulsive means to provide forward motion including a turboprop jet engine mounted over the rear section of the ducted fan shroud bellmouth.

8. The aircraft of claim 2, further comprising aerodynamic controls for a transitional flight regime comprising:

a three control surface elevator including a central third section between two outer third sections, the three control surface elevator the full wingspan of the aircraft, the central third of the elevator being in the slipstream of the tractor or pusher propeller to be used to enhance aircraft stability in pitch during engine throttle adjustments in a conventional flight regime, the two outer third sections acting as conventional elevator surfaces, said elevator having a surface area in the range of 25-50% of the surface area of the horizontal stabilizer to provide satisfactory aerodynamic control of pitch;

flaps on the bottom wing of the biplane set of wings;

ailerons on the top wing of the biplane set of wings, said bottom wing having a rear part and no lifting surfaces on the rear part of the bottom inside the midriggers.

9. The aircraft of claim 8, further comprising an engine throttle, wherein the elevator adjusts when the engine throttle changes position, to compensate for the downward force on the nosegear of the aircraft impressed by the thrust from the forward propulsion system.

10. The aircraft of claim 1, wherein the two sidefins have front and rear edges extending linearly to the front and rear edges of the bottom wing wingtips, respectively, and then to the front and rear edges of the top wing wingtips, and then to the front and rear of the wingtips of the horizontal stabilizer;

the two sidefins have top curvature between the top wing and horizontal stabilizer curved concavely in an “

S”

shaped curve, to reduce the amount of sidefin area exposed to crosswinds pressing against the sidefins above the aircraft lateral center of gravity; and

the two sidefins have dorsal extensions extending below the bottom wing, to add surface area to the sidefins below the aircraft lateral center of gravity, the purpose of the “

S”

shaped curve and dorsal extensions being to lower the center of pressure of the sidefins to below the center of gravity of the aircraft.

11. The aircraft of claim 1, wherein said midriggers are parallel to the fuselage and airflow, to connect the top and bottom wings for structural reasons and enhanced vertical thrust, on both sides of the aircraft;

said midriggers canted so that the bottom of the midriggers is located further outboard than the top of said midriggers;

the angle between a vertical line and the midriggers to be between 3 and 10 degrees.

12. The aircraft of claim 11, the midriggers have dorsal fins extending below the bottom wing to enhance vertical thrust recapture.

13. The aircraft of claim 2, further comprising horizontal propulsive means to provide forward motion and either a single or two engines driving both the exbedded ducted fan and the horizontal propulsive means including two clutches to transfer power incrementally between the ducted fan rotor and the horizontal propulsive means;

said clutches mounted with said engines to transmit power through a driveshaft, said driveshaft mounted on a drivetrain truss.

14. The aircraft of claim 13, wherein the horizontal propulsive means comprises a tractor or pusher propeller and transfer of engine power is made using the two clutches, including a first clutch, called the VTOL clutch, to control activation of engine power to the exbedded ducted fan rotor, and a second clutch, called the conventional flight clutch, to control the activation of engine power to the tractor or pusher propeller.

15. The aircraft of claim 14, wherein the two clutches are controlled by a single floor mounted foot pedal and trimmed using two instrument, floor, sidewall or ceiling mounted trim levers for controlling the relative rate of mix of clutch engagement/disengagement between the two clutches.

16. The aircraft of claim 1, wherein the outrigger landing gear includes outrigger wheels mounted in front of a junction of said midriggers with the bottom wing on both sides of the aircraft to prevent aircraft roll-over during takeoff rolls while at high engine power settings, the tailwheel mounted at the rear end of the drivetrain truss.

17. The aircraft of claim 2, comprising a single top wing instead of the biplane wings, and further comprising exbedded airpath roll/yaw control vanes mounted on stalks projecting downward from the ducted fan shroud.

18. The aircraft of claim 2, further comprising collapsing passenger seats which have a two-stage collapsing mechanism, wherein the rear of the seat fails backward at a G loading of 5 to 10 G'"'"'s, said collapsing mechanism comprising a Euler column which collapses at 5 G'"'"'s, an aluminum honeycomb block under the seat collapsing at 5-10 G'"'"'s, a double sliding armrest support tube collapsing at 10 G'"'"'s allowing the seat to recline, and once reclined, continuing to fail through the collapse of another higher density aluminum honeycomb at controlled rate of 30 G'"'"'s deceleration.

19. The aircraft of claim 1, further comprising main fuel tanks in the biplane wings, wherein the canard wings may act as a canard fuel tank, and fuel in the canard fuel tank can be transferred to the main wing fuel tanks in the biplane wings.

20. The aircraft propulsion system of claim 9, wherein an incremental change in position of the pitch and roll/yaw control vanes results in a change in position of the throttle to compensate for the increased drag and redirected thrust vector of the vanes.