GB629460A - Improvements in or relating to aircraft - Google Patents

Abstract

629,460. Aircraft fuel tanks. ANDERSON, J. R. June 4, 1946, No. 29542/47. Divided out of 612,881. [Class 4] An aircraft of the kind adapted to take off and land in a vertical attitude, in the 'manner of a helicopter, such as described in Specification 568,548, has its fuel tanks so arranged that a sufficient quantity of fuel is always available for landing, a part of the fuel being carried in a tank with its outlet so positioned that, with the aircraft in a substantially horizontal attitude some of the fuel is below the outlet level and cannot be withdrawn, the outlet being at substantially the lowest point of the tank when the aircraft assumes a nose-up attitude. In the form shown the fuel pipe 54 is connected at 55 to a tank 53 at the rear of the fuselage, the point 55 being in the top of the tank and near the rear thereof. To prevent fuel from passing into the pipe 54 when the aircraft is flying at a considerable angle to the horizontal, but not in the vertical landing attitude, a valve 58 may be fitted at the outlet. The valve is operated by a weight 62 on a pivoted arm 61, the latter of which passes a dead-centre position as the aircraft assumes a vertical attitude. The attitude at which the valve opens is controlled by an adjusting screw 65, and a spring detent 66 retains the valve in the closed or open position. The valve may be operated by a solenoid which is energized by the closing of a mercury switch when the aircraft assumes a predetermined attitude, or such a switch may be used to control a pump which draws from a reserve supply. Additional fuel tanks 51, 52 may be mounted in the wings and fuselage respectively, the points of connection 56 with the fuel supply pipe 54 being located as the bases of the tanks.