GB909118A - Improvements in vehicles for use on land and in the air - Google Patents

Abstract

909,118. Direct lift aircraft. BRISTOL SIDDELEY ENGINES Ltd. March 28, 1961 [March 29, 1960], No. 11064/60. Class 4. [Also in Group XXXII] An aircraft has a body comprising top and bottom surfaces joined by front, rear, and two side walls, which encloses a ducted fan drawing in air through two sideways facing intakes, one in each side wall, and discharging downwards through an outlet in the bottom surface to provide a lifting force. Fig. 1 shows a combined aircraft and road vehicle having wheels 30, 32 drivable by a gas turbine engine (not shown). A ducted fan 34 is driven by three further gas turbine engines (two, 58 and 60, shown) the fan and engines being supported from the fan duct by struts 90, 92. Air intakes 46 (one shown) feed the fan and the gas turbine air inlets, which are at the lower ends of the engines. The engines exhaust through a trap 101 in the vehicle roof to give horizontal propulsion in flight. Each fan driving engine, Fig. 7, has a free turbine 66, coupled by gears 72, 74, to a common gear 76 on a central shaft 78 coupled by epicyclic gearing to contra-rotating fan rotors 54, 56, designed to have equal drag when rotating at equal speeds, so that no reaction gear is needed in the epicyclic gearing. The three engines are interconnected by plates 94 and flanged member 96. Shaft 78 also drives a shaft 140 connected to a blower 120, Fig. 12, which supplies air to ducting 122, 124, 126 leading to four sets of nozzles, one set at each corner of the vehicle. each set comprising an upwardly, a downwardly, and a laterally discharging nozzle 128, 130, 132. respectively and valves such as 134 and 136. The valves are controlled manually and by gyroscopes and an altimeter to preserve trim and prevent too fast a descent. Fig. 16 shows the control system for the downwardly pointing nozzle jets. Each valve 136 is connected by linkage 139, 143, 178, a non linear transmission device 174, and linkage 176, 147, and 149, to a plunger 153 in a housing 155, the plunger having a roller 152 urged against a cam 154 by a spring 157. The cam 154 is displaceable horizontally in any direction by two servos 170, 172 responsive to a control column, gyro, and altimeter, so that attitude of the vehicle about the roll and pitch axes is controlled by operation of valves 136. The cam is so shaped that for moderate displacement, the total discharge from the nozzles is not greater than that from one fully opened nozzle, all four nozzles or any pair being operative. Full displacement of the cam towards any one plunger opens the associated nozzle fully, and closes the others. Propulsive and braking forces during flight, other than that from the engine exhausts, is provided by altering the attitude of the vehicle, or by adjustable vanes in the fan exhaust outlet, or by having the fan duct part-spherical and tilting the fan within the duct, or by tilting the fan and duct together. Two fans with a common discharge duct may be used. The fan rotors may be braked so that the engines can be run up without raising dust until take-off. Fuel tanks are located around the fan duct. Bars 106 across the inlets 46, Fig. 1, prevent accidents to personnel, and may be de-iced, and webs, Fig. 5 (not shown), across the vehicle bottom prevent damage to the fan when driving as a ground vehicle across country. According to the Provisional Specification, the conventional road vehicle controls are used to produce similar effects in flight. Thus release of the hand brake or foot brake pedal releases the fan brakes, and operation of the foot brake and accelerator pedals controls pitch attitude and thus propulsive and braking forces. The steering wheel is rotated to produce yawing, which is accompanied automatically by banking. The steering wheel column, locked during ground operation, is pivotable fore-and-aft to control the fan engine throttles and thus altitude.