GB383408A - Improvements in flying machines - Google Patents

Abstract

383,408. Supporting and propelling aircraft. JOHNSON, C. E., 86, Hill Street, West Hobart, Tasmania. Nov. 10, 1931, No. 31107. Convention date, Nov. 11, 1930. [Class 4.] An aircraft supported by wings 32 in normal flight is supported during hovering and vertical flight by forcing air over an annular aerofoil or a series of annular aerofoils 10 having pockets or depressions 11 in their upper surfaces, for which purpose helical blades mounted on bosses 17<A> on a vertical shaft 18 draw air through ports 19 in a cylindrical casing 13 and discharge it through ports 19<A> . The bottom end of the casing 13 is closed by a plate 15 and the open upper end is restricted by a ring 14. A smaller diameter impeller may rotate at a higher speed inside a larger one in the cylindrical casing. The pockets 11, Fig. 1, are formed in the upper surface of each aerofoil 10 to increase the rarefaction over the upper surface. Lips 12 are formed on the forward edges of the aerofoils 10. The aircraft is propelled by an air impeller 24, Fig. 6, in a cylinder open at its forward end and closed at its rear end, ports 25<A> in the cylinder directing air on to aerofoils 23. To vary the forward thrust when changing from horizontal to vertical flight the impeller 24 and its shaft may be moved forward by screw gear 29, 30, the shaft sliding through a driving pinion 27. Other impellers in conical trunks 20, Fig. 1, extending through the fuselage assist the lift and balance. These impellers rotate in the opposite direction to the main impellers and by declutching the engine the machine may be turned in azimuth. The fuselage is double walled with the intermediate space filled with hydrogen or helium. In a modification a larger number of annular aerofoils are substituted for the aerofoils 10 and a dome-like cowl encloses them.