GB477395A - Improvements in stabilising devices for aeroplanes - Google Patents

Abstract

477,395. Controlling aeroplanes. BILLIOQUE, E. J. H. May 22, 1936, Nos. 14562 and 14563. Convention dates, May 24, 1935 and March 3, 1936. [Class 4] A device designed to permit vertical flat descent of an aeroplane comprises a statically balanced plane 1, Fig. 1, pivoted in front of its centre of pressure on an axle 2 parallel to the pitching axis and of such size and so positioned that the effort produced at the front of the fuselage by its resistance to an upward vertical current of air counterbalances exactly with respect to the pitching axis the effort produced by the resistance of the tail plane 7 in the same current, a cable or stop being provided for plane 1 such that the plane floats freely in steady flight but contacts with the stop and becomes operative when the nose of the aeroplane drops as the result of a stall. The stop in this form is constituted by a normally slack cable 5 connecting plane 1 to control column 6. In another form, Fig. 3, plane 1 statically balanced by a mass 8 is limited in movement by an arm 9 mounted on axle 2 and adjustable through cable 10 by a hand lever 11. Mounted on supporting arm 3 is a further stop arm 12 connected to arm 9 by a return spring 14. Stops 13, 21 may incorporate resilient devices and cable 10 may incorporate a spring designed to yield if the load on surface 1 exceeds a pre-determined value. Arm 3 is rotatably mounted and is geared to the rudder bar so as to tilt surface 1 in sympathy with rudder movement. According to the Specification as open to inspection under Sect. 91 plane 1 may be positively controlled by the elevator control column and act as a forward elevator. In a modification, Fig. 8 (Cancelled) plane 1 is freely mounted for rotation between two stops and provided with a pendulum mass 8. The oscillations of the plane may be damped or controlled by gyroscopic or other automatic means. This subject-matter does not appear in the Specification as accepted.