GB767138A - Improvements relating to the supplying of fuel to aircraft - Google Patents

Abstract

767,138. Supplying fuel to aircraft. ROLLSROYCE, Ltd. June 3, 1955 [June 4, 1954], No. 16679/54. Class 4. A method of operating an aircraft having power plant of the gas turbine thrust reaction type arranged to be supplied with fuel carried by the aircraft and to produce lift on the aircraft independently of lift generated by forward flight, includes connecting the aircraft to a ground-borne fuel supply at least up to the moment when the aircraft becomes airborne, fuel being supplied from said ground borne source when the aircraft is grounded and the power plant is consuming fuel. The ground borne source may be still connected when the aircraft is rising vertically. In Fig. 4, one end of a supply cable 21 is attached to the aircraft and the other end is secured to the hollow shaft 17 of a drum 22 on which the cable is wound. The hollow shaft communicates with the cable by a passage 20, and with the fuel supply by orifices 16A and a conduit 16. The end of the cable, when released from the aircraft, descends by parachute. A motor driven shaft 24 is adapted to rewind the cable onto the drum. In Fig. 5, the cable is replaced by piping 28, coiled when the aircraft is on the ground. The piping comprises a series of straight pipes joined rotatably by right angled pipe bends. The aircraft may take off with less than its full fuel supply, the remainder being transferred from the ground after take-off.