DE102019101362A1 - Aircraft - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides an aircraft with the following features: the aircraft comprises a passenger compartment for accommodating passengers; the passenger compartment is set up for an individual head position of the passengers; the passenger compartment contains a receiver for locating a transmitter (10) which can be carried by the passengers at the head position; and the passenger compartment contains a sound source, which is connected to the receiver in terms of signal technology, in order to generate a counter sound in such a way that flight noises perceptible at the head position are extinguished by the counter sound.

Description

The present invention relates to an aircraft, in particular a fully electric, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft.

In the aerospace industry, VTOL refers to any type of aircraft, drone or rocket that has the ability to take off and put back on essentially vertically and without a runway. This collective term is used in a broad sense below, which includes not only fixed-wing aircraft with wings, but also rotary-wing aircraft such as helicopters, gyroplanes, flight screwdrivers and hybrids such as compound helicopters or combination screwdrivers and convertible aircraft. Also included are aircraft with the ability to take off and land on particularly short distances (short take-off and landing, STOL), take off on short distances but land vertically (short take-off and vertical landing, STOVL). or take off vertically, but land horizontally (vertical take-off and horizontal landing, VTHL).

In technical acoustics, so-called anti-or counter-sound is sound that is artificially generated in order to extinguish another sound by means of destructive interference. For this purpose, the aim is to generate a signal that corresponds exactly to that of the disturbing sound with the opposite polarity.

US 2006/0285697 A 1 suggests using location sensors to determine optimal output levels, sound characteristics, and delay times to generate a suitable counter-sound in order to best eliminate ambient noise without the microphones for recording the reference sound being placed at the ear position. However, the location sensors are not worn directly on the ear.

WO 2007/066259 A2 discloses a system for the local generation of counter-sound, in which the position of the ears is determined by means of HF or ultrasound technology.

CN 101640830 A finally relates to a comparable system in which the position of the ears is derived from a camera image.

Such active noise cancellation (ANC) proves to be less efficient at higher frequencies, since the precise definition of the ear position is extremely important. In higher frequency ranges, the wavelengths are comparatively short, so that even a few centimeters difference in the ear position can change the required phase of the counter signal in order to effectively suppress noise.

Current technologies assume a rough estimate of the head position, which is insufficient to cancel out high frequencies.

The invention provides an aircraft, in particular a fully electric aircraft which is capable of vertical take-off and landing in the above sense, according to independent claim 1.

This device enables precise ear position detection, so that a counter signal with an optimum phase for noise compensation can be generated, which in turn makes it possible to eliminate flight noises of higher frequency.

Further advantageous refinements of the invention are specified in the dependent claims. For example, the aircraft can be equipped with kinked or even optionally kinkable wings. A corresponding variant increases the wing area effective in horizontal flight, but without extending the footprint of the aircraft.

Furthermore, the aircraft may have a quickly chargeable battery system which provides the drive energy for vertical take-off and landing as well as horizontal flight and enables the aircraft to be charged at short notice when stationary.

Instead of free-running rotors, several ducted fans of different sizes can be used to drive the aircraft, as are known apart from aeronautical engineering, for example from hovercraft or marshalling boats. In such an embodiment, the cylindrical housing surrounding the propeller can considerably reduce the thrust losses due to turbulence at the blade tips. Suitable jacketed propellers may be aligned horizontally or vertically, designed to be pivotable between the two positions or, for aerodynamic reasons, covered in horizontal flight by louvers. In addition, pure horizontal thrust generation by means of fixed jacket propellers is conceivable.

Finally - in addition to preferably fully autonomous operation of the aircraft - with sufficient qualification, it is also possible to grant manual control to the human pilot, which gives the device according to the invention the greatest possible flexibility in handling.

• 1 ist die Ansicht eines Fluggastes mit einem am Ohr getragenen Sender.
• 2 ist das Schwingungsdiagramm einer exemplarischen Schallwelle.
• 3 ist die Draufsicht eines erfindungsgemäßen Passagierraums.

An embodiment of the invention is shown in the drawings and is described in more detail below.

• 1 is the view of a passenger with a transmitter worn on the ear.
• 2nd is the vibration diagram of an exemplary sound wave.
• 3rd is the top view of a passenger compartment according to the invention.

1 illustrates a sensor used in the context of an embodiment to support the exact localization of the ear. A basic idea of the invention is to make small transmitters (or passengers) 10th ) or to have passive transponders, which may be integrated into designer earplugs or the temples of sunglasses, for example. Their adaptation to the passenger's ears is created by a sensor that determines the exact position of the ears within the passenger compartment using radio or ultrasound technology.

verhält sich die Wellenlänge (11) einer Schwingung umgekehrt proportional zu deren Frequenz, weshalb eine genaue Phasenlage des außerbandigen Signales mit steigender Frequenz schwieriger zu erreichen ist. Der im Rahmen der ANC erzeugte Gegenschall (12) basiert jedoch - neben nahe dem Kopf befindlichen Mikrofonen - just auf dieser Phasenverschiebung (13) zwischen dem jeweiligen Mikrofon und der angenommenen Kopfposition. Die Phase, bei welcher der Fluggast das Fluggeräusch wahrnimmt, hängt somit in hohem Maße von dieser Kopfposition ab. Letzteres gilt insbesondere in hohen Frequenzbereichen, wo selbst kleine Lageänderungen des Kopfes beträchtliche Auswirkungen zeitigen können.The need for such an exact location can be seen from a summary of the 2nd and 3rd : According to the context $$\lambda =\frac{c}{f}$$

behaves the wavelength ( 11 ) of an oscillation inversely proportional to its frequency, which is why an exact phase position of the out-of-band signal is more difficult to achieve with increasing frequency. The counter sound generated within the ANC ( 12th ) is based on this phase shift - in addition to microphones located near the head ( 13 ) between the respective microphone and the assumed head position. The phase in which the passenger perceives the flight noise depends to a large extent on this head position. The latter applies particularly in high frequency ranges, where even small changes in the position of the head can have considerable effects.

QUOTES INCLUDE IN THE DESCRIPTION

This list of documents listed by the applicant has been generated automatically and is only included for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent or utility model application. The DPMA assumes no liability for any errors or omissions.

Patent literature cited

• US 2006/0285697 A [0004]
• WO 2007/066259 A2 [0005]
• CN 101640830 A [0006]

Claims (10)

Aircraft, characterized by the following features: - the aircraft comprises a passenger compartment for accommodating passengers, - the passenger compartment is set up for an individual head position of the passengers, - the passenger compartment contains a receiver for locating a transmitter (10) that can be carried by the passengers at the head position and - the passenger compartment contains a sound source connected to the receiver for generating counter-noise (12) such that flight noises perceptible at the head position are extinguished by the counter-noise (12). Aircraft after Claim 1 , characterized by the following feature: - the sound source is adapted to cancel short-wavelength sound (11). Aircraft after Claim 1 or 2nd , characterized by the following feature: - the sound source is set up in such a way that the counter-sound (12) has a phase shift (13) adapted to the head position with respect to the flight noise. Aircraft according to one of the Claims 1 to 3rd , characterized by the following feature: - The aircraft has a fully electric drive. Aircraft according to one of the Claims 1 to 4th , characterized by the following feature: - the aircraft comprises kinked or kinkable wings. Aircraft according to one of the Claims 1 to 5 , characterized by the following feature: - the aircraft comprises a rapidly chargeable battery system. Aircraft according to one of the Claims 1 to 6 , characterized by the following feature: - The aircraft comprises horizontally fixed jacket propellers for take-off and landing. Aircraft after Claim 7 , characterized by the following features: - the aircraft has fins and - the horizontal jacket propellers can be covered with the fins. Aircraft according to one of the Claims 1 to 8th , characterized by the following feature: - the aircraft comprises vertically fixed jacket propellers for generating propulsion. Aircraft according to one of the Claims 1 to 9 , characterized by the following feature: - The aircraft can optionally be controlled fully autonomously.

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