RU2759061C1 - Vertical take-off and landing aircraft with additional cargo modules and retractable propellers - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: aviation.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to aviation, specifically to multi-rotor rotary-wing aircraft (AC) with vertical take-off and landing. A vertical take-off and landing aircraft with additional cargo modules and retractable propellers contains a fuselage, a cockpit, main wing, empennage, propeller-driven groups to create lift and thrust, a power plant for power supply, propeller-driven groups with controllers, a flight computer, a sensor system for flight monitoring and control, avionics, rescue system and other flight and safety systems. At the same time, additional cargo modules with retractable propellers are attached to the aircraft, providing lift sufficient for take-off/landing and hovering of the aircraft with additional aerodynamic resistance modules during cruise flight.

EFFECT: increase in the carrying capacity and useful volume of the aircraft fuselage while maintaining the economy of cruise flight.

1 cl, 8 dwg

Description

Technology area

The invention relates to aviation, in particular, to multi-rotor rotorcraft with vertical take-off and landing, namely, to multicopters with rotary propellers and wings.

The invention proposes a new design of the aircraft (hereinafter referred to as the aircraft), which provides the possibility of increasing the carrying capacity by additively building up the fuselage with additional cargo modules with retractable propellers that provide the necessary lift during takeoff, landing and hovering of the aircraft.

In the folded state, the additional propellers are tightly pressed against the side surfaces of the module, they go into the side niches or retracted into the module so as not to increase the aerodynamic drag of the aircraft during cruise flight.

The positive effect is to increase the carrying capacity of the multicopter while maintaining the economy of cruise flight.

Prior art

It is known that the main energy consumption of multicopters with wings occurs during takeoff, landing and hovering. In cruise flight, when certain speeds are reached, the lift is provided by the wings, and the propellers are required only to create thrust and control the thrust vector, the required value of which is significantly less than the lift generated by the propellers during takeoff.

It follows from this that in order to increase the aircraft's carrying capacity, additional propellers are required to ensure takeoff, landing and / or hovering of the aircraft, which are not used in cruise flight and do not provide significant aerodynamic resistance when folded.

FIG. 1. schematically shows a multicopter (US 10974838), in which vertical take-off is provided by an array of eight propellers rotating in a horizontal plane, and cruise flight is provided by only two pushing propellers and is supported by the lift generated by the wings at sufficient speeds. Lift propellers are placed between the front and rear fenders to minimize aerodynamic drag generated during cruise flight. The advantage of the multicopter is its increased carrying capacity. The disadvantage is the additional energy consumption to overcome the aerodynamic drag, which is inevitably created by open propellers in cruise flight.

To avoid this disadvantage, the propellers are placed in louvered channels located in the fuselage or in the wings. During takeoff, landing and hovering, the louvers are open and the propellers rotate to create lift. During cruising, the propellers are off and the louvers are closed.

FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 shows various options for the implementation of aircraft vertical take-off and landing with lifting screws in channels with louvers located in the wings.

Known multicopter (US 10246184) with a wing, inside of which there are six channels with lifting propellers, three on each side of the fuselage, and one pushing propeller. During takeoff, the channels are open, and in the cruise field, they are closed, as shown in FIG. 2a and FIG. 2b. The disadvantage of the design is the increased complexity of the aircraft wings and the inability to fully replace large areas of the wing bearing surfaces using louvers.

Known turbojet aircraft (US 6843447) vertical take-off and landing, in which the propellers are in channels with louvers, placed in the thickened parts of the wing adjacent to the fuselage. The disadvantage of such an aircraft is also the need to complicate the wing design and reduce the mechanical strength and aerodynamic quality of the wings.

Another well-known approach to using different sets of propellers for takeoff / landing and cruise flight is that some of the propellers used to create lift during takeoff are not used in level flight, and their blades are folded in order to reduce aerodynamic resistance during cruise flight.

US Pat. No. 9,975,631 proposes an aircraft in which eight rotary propellers are used for vertical take-off, and only four for cruise flight. The other four propellers are switched off during cruise, and their blades are folded. The aircraft in take-off and cruise flight modes is shown in FIG. 4a and FIG. 4b, respectively. The disadvantage of this solution is the complication of the design of the propellers.

Known aircraft with a short strip for takeoff and landing (US 2019/0135426), additionally containing a plurality of fans, optionally retractable into the fuselage (analogue).

The use of a part of the available propellers only during takeoff / landing in the known solutions leads to complex wing designs with shuttered channels into which the propellers are placed, or to complex rotary propellers with folding blades. Thus, the disadvantages of the known analogs are a significant complication of the design of the wings or propellers with an inevitable decrease in the reliability and aerodynamic quality of the aircraft.

Brief Description of Drawings

FIG. 1. Aircraft with an array of eight open propellers to create lift during vertical takeoff and two pushing propellers for cruise flight (US patent 10974838, analogue).

FIG. 2. Aircraft with six propellers in channels with louvers, symmetrically built into the wing, on both sides of the fuselage. In cruise flight, one pushing propeller is used, located at the end of the fuselage (US patent 10246184, analogue).

FIG. 3. A vertical take-in and landing turbojet with four propellers in louvered channels built into the thick wing sections adjacent to the fuselage. Propellers are used for vertical take-off and landing, and turbines are used to create thrust in cruise flight (US patent 6843447, analogue).

FIG. 4. A vertical take-off and landing aircraft with eight propellers on the leading edges of the rotary wings. For vertical takeoff and landing, all propellers are involved, in cruise mode, four propellers at the ends of the main front and rear fenders. The blades of the remaining four screws are folded (US patent 9975631, analogue).

FIG. 5. An aircraft with a short runway for takeoff and landing, additionally containing a plurality of fans, optionally retractable into the fuselage (US patent 2019/0135426, analogue).

FIG. 6. Variant of aircraft vertical take-off and landing with additional folding propellers: on the left - in cruise flight mode with folded additional propellers (in isometric and lateral projections); on the right - in vertical take-off mode with additional propellers deployed to the operating position (in isometric and lateral projections). Two cargo modules are marked.

FIG. 7. Schematic representation of a removable cargo module installed on an aircraft with two lifting air propellers providing lift to hold it.

FIG. 8. Variant of aircraft vertical take-off and landing with three cargo modules: on the left - in cruise flight mode with folded additional propellers (in isometric, lateral, upper and frontal projections); on the right - in the vertical takeoff mode with additional propellers deployed to the operating position (in the same projections).

Disclosure of the essence of the invention

The technical objective of the invention is to increase the carrying capacity of an aircraft with vertical take-off and landing without loss of flight performance in flight.

The solution to the technical problem consists in the additive build-up of the aircraft body with additional modules with propellers deployed and used during takeoff, landing and hovering of the aircraft, and folded in cruise flight so as not to affect the aerodynamic drag of the aircraft.

Additional cargo modules have propellers folded in their initial state before takeoff, unfolded and rotating during takeoff / landing or hovering, stopped and folded in their initial state in cruise flight mode.

In the folded state, the propellers are tightly pressed against the side surfaces of the module or niches on the surface of the module, or retracted into the fuselage, or are in any other position that does not lead to an increase in the aerodynamic drag of the aircraft in flight.

Additional propellers are brought into operation by extending them outside the fuselage and turning them to a position normal to the fuselage for rotation in the horizontal plane. At the same time, the circles swept by the propellers during rotation do not overlap.

The proposed aircraft consists, as shown in Fig. 6, from the front module, which includes the cockpit and the main front wing with propellers attached to it, the rear module with empennage and propellers, as well as cargo compartments (two in this version) with additional folding propellers to create lift.

Aircraft with two additional lifting propellers in two states, namely: 1) with folded additional propellers in the initial position of the aircraft before takeoff and in cruise flight mode (a, c); 2) with the propellers deployed to the operating position during takeoff / landing and hovering (b, d).

In the first state, to ensure cruise flight, only the main propellers are involved, fixed on the wings and rotated to rotate in horizontal planes in order to create the aircraft's thrust force.

In the second state, the entire set of propellers is involved, both main and additional, deployed to rotate in horizontal planes in order to create lift to ensure takeoff / landing and hovering of the aircraft. Additional propellers are attached to the fuselage and rotate relative to the fuselage.

FIG. 7 schematically shows a removable cargo module with additional propellers, which can be installed between the above-described front and rear aircraft modules. The cargo module propellers are shown in a collapsed state, but can be deployed to rotate horizontally for additional lift. Additional propellers are selected to provide sufficient lift to lift the cargo hold vertically as part of a modular aircraft. The inclusion of the cargo module in the modular aircraft provides an additive increase in the aircraft's carrying capacity.

FIG. 8 shows a variant of an aircraft with three cargo modules with additional deployable propellers, shown in the initial state and in flight with folded additional propellers (a, c, e, g), as well as in a state with deployed additional propellers during takeoff / landing and hovering (b , d, f, h), in projections: isometric (a, b), lateral (c, d), upper (e, f) and frontal (g, h).

The main and additional propellers are driven in rotation by electric motors with controllers. Electrical power can be provided by batteries, a hybrid electric generator based on an internal combustion engine, an electrochemical generator based on hydrogen fuel cells, or any suitable combination of these power supplies.

The aircraft can be unmanned and / or manned.

The above embodiments of the invention demonstrate the solution of the technical problem and the achievement of the claimed result, namely, an increase in the carrying capacity of an aircraft with vertical take-off and landing without significant complication of the design and loss of aerodynamic qualities of the aircraft in flight.

The above options for vertical take-off and landing aircraft with additional cargo modules with folding propellers illustrate possible implementations of the claimed invention, but do not limit it in essence and in implementation details, including the number, design and location of both main and additional propellers, turning methods and folding additional screws, as well as their placement in the folded state and other possible details of the implementation of the invention.

Claims (1)

A vertical take-off and landing aircraft (AC) with additional cargo modules and retractable propellers, containing a fuselage, a cockpit for the crew, the main wing, empennage, propeller groups for creating lift and thrust, a power plant for power supply, propeller groups with controllers, flight a computer, a sensor system for monitoring and flight control, avionics, a rescue system and other flight and safety systems, characterized in that to increase the carrying capacity and useful volume of the fuselage, additional cargo modules with retractable propellers are attached to the aircraft, providing lift sufficient for takeoff / landing and hovering of aircraft with additional aerodynamic resistance modules during cruise flight.

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