US1805834A - Glider propulsion device - Google Patents

Description

y 1931. s. A. MILLER I GLIDER PROPULSION DEVICE Filed Sept. 16, 1950 a Sheet-Sheet 1 y 1 1931- G. A. MILLER 1,805,834-

GLIDER PROPULSION DEVICE Filed Sept. 16, 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Gus 'g AVA -MIL LE R.

ATTORNEYS May 19, 1931. G. A. MILLER 1,805,834

GLIDER PROPULSION DEVICE Filed Sept. 16, 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 0 O O o 00 64 Ill INVENTOR ATTORNEYS Patented May 19, 1931 GUSTAV A.-MILLER, or SEATTLE, WASHINGTON GLIDER PROPULSION, nEvIcE Application filed September 16, 1930. Serial No. 482,233.-

My present invention relates to glider construction and operation and more particularly to a glider propulsion device.'

'Gliders may be generally referred to as motorless aeroplanes and must rely for their sustaining force while in the air upon the action of air impinging upon the wings, much as an aeroplane maintains itself in flight. The methods of launching gliders is varied and well known. Oftentimes, however, while in flight it is found that the air currents, either horizontal or verticah'which are required to maintain the flight of 'the glider will momentarily die out and the glider will immediately begin to lose elevation. This is undesirable, first, it may necessitate a forced landing where no facilities are available and, secondly, as is quite comnoon, the currents may die out for but a short period and then come back as strong as ever. If some means is provided to assist the pilot in maintaining his elevation for a short period, the flight can then be resumed. It is to A provide means for enabling apilot to assist his glider in maintaining its elevation that I have provided my device. Therefore:

The principal obj eotof my object is to provide means whereby the pilot of a glidermay manually assist his machinein maintaining its elevation; a 1 r v 3 A further object a is to provide means whereby under favorable conditionsthepilot may manually supply the little additional effort required tolaunch his glider,

Other and morespecific objects will be ap-: parent from the following description taken in: connection 'with the accompanying drawings,wherein j Figure 1 is a front view of my device as installed upon a glider with the same in its normalv position of use. -1 ew with my auxil- Figure 2 is a simllarrvi iarywings partially depressed. I Figure 3 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view showing my control mechanism as it appearswith my wings as in the position indicated in Figure 2.

Figure 4, isa side elevation of a glider with my device'in placewith parts of the same broken away to better illustrate the constru0 tion. Figure 5 is a fragmentary, cross-sectional view through one of my auxiliary wings.

Figure 6 is a transverse section through one of my wings showing the shutter ar rangement in its opened position, and further illustrating its operating mechanism. 1

Figure 7 is a similar view showing my shutter closed and such parts of the glider as arenecessary to show the co-acting parts.

Figure 8 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view showing the control mechanism of my device, the same showing the wings-in their normal position.

Figure 9 is a view similar to Figure8 with the wings partially depressed. '7

Figure 10 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line, 1010 of Figure 2. I K

Referring to the drawings throughout which like reference characters indicate like parts, numeral 10 designates the main wing portion of any standard glider having the passenger receiving fuselage 12 and the necessary vertical rudder 14: and horizontal rudder 16. Conveniently spaced below wings 10, and I have found 8 or 10 inches a convenient distance, are two wings 20vand 22 which are hingedly secured at 24 to a frame member 26; It will be noted in Figure 10 that the twohinged joints 24: are not parallel but converge to a point forward of the glider; Secured to, the upper surface as at 28 of the wings is a tension spring member 30, whichI prefer to secure to frame 26 by 5 some adjustable means as by turn buckle 32. The purpose of these two resilient members is to counter-balance the weightof the wings 20 and 22 and for this purpose any resilient H means might be used. 1. A coilspring or rubber of the proper character is ,equallysatisfactory. Wing members 20 and 22 I prefer to form as a frame work 34 to which arepiv otably secured, as at 36, a plurality of shutter members. The exact shape of these shutter members is relatively immaterial, although I have found it a little more satisfactory to usethe form substantially as shown in Fig: ures (Sand 7 wherein eachmember 38is provided with a'lip 40; over the pivot point 36 when in the closed position and gives an impinging surface for the action of the air. In order to close shutter 38 I provide an operating bar 42 which is pivoted by a parallelogram arrangement from points and 44 and has secured to it the chutter engaging member 46. The arm 48 which supports theleading end of bar 42 has a portion extending above pivot 44 which is adapted to engage an abutment 50 to the end of closing all the shutters atIa single movement.

Any satisfactory means might be provided to give my auxiliary wings an up and down or flapping movement. I have illustrated partciularly in Figures 8 and 9, a mechanism which Ihave found particularly adaptable to this use. This consists of a bell crank 52 which is pivoted to the fuselage at 54 and in turn has pivoted to it at 56 the arm 5.8 which in turn is pivotably secured at 60 to i the wing 22. Pivotably secured at- 62 is a link member 64, which in turn is pivotably secured to the cross bar 66, which may be a separate member as indicated, or may form a part of the vertically moveable member 68.

' The wide form of members 68 is best shown in Figures 3 and 4 wherein the two ends of member 68 are bent over and encircle vertically disposed post 70. These bent over portions serve as spring seats for the two compression springs 72 and74. These springs may be termed buffers and, of course, could be replaced by rubber buffers. Their purpose is to slow up the end of either the upward or downward stroke and to steer the mechanism in the reverse direction. The sliding member 68 is connected by suitable linkage 76 with thelong lever 78. Lever 78 is pivotably secured to the fuselage frame at 80 and has its forward end bent upwardly to provide the hand lever 82. This I have elected to provide. with cross member 84 so that the convenient grips are provided so that both ends Inightbe used at once if desired.

In the longitudinal sectional views 3 and 4 I have shown the conventional joy stick 86 and the foot lever 88, which form parts of the standard glider control mechanism and,

of course, is no part of this presentapplication. 7

I 2 Method of operation suflicient intensity or strength so that the glider can lift itself. My auxiliary wings in thisposition will be as indicated in Figure 1. In this position lever 48 has contacted the abutment 50 and the shutters 38 are all the closed position such as shown in Figure 7. The pilot then grips handle 84 which will then be in the position as indicated in li igure l, and by pulling sharply to him will pull the auxiliary wings downwardly to a point as indicated in Figure 2, or even slightly beyond that. This will give a decided upward thrust on the machine and by the angled mounting as indicated in Figure 10, a small component of the eifort will be directed to moving the glider forwardly. This may be repeated several times in .quick succession and under suitable conditions will be just sufficient extra raising effort to lift the glider off the ground.

A second condition will arise where the glider is in the air but launched in any conventional manner, and a period will be encountered wherethe air currents are not suflicient to enable the pilot to keep his glider in the air. Under these conditionsthe similar operation, asexplained, is gone through and if the currents,plus the effort applied by the pilot are suificientthe glider maybe easily kept aloft.

In other words, where there is just enough driving current inthe air to keep the glider at a given elevation, manipulation of my auxiliary wings will enable the glider to gain elevation.

I wish it understood that I have not been able to fly a glider by means of manual effort thus applied, although I would not care to say the same cannot-be done. The purpose of my invention is to supply at the times, most desired enough extra lifting effort to carryout the operations asoutlined.

The foregoing description and the accompanying drawings are believed to clearly disclose a preferred embodiment of my inventionibut it will be understood that this disclosure is merely illustrative and that such changes in the invention may be made as are fairly within the scope and spirit of the following claims: 7 7

What I claim is:

1. A glider propulsion device consisting of auxiliary 'w ing'members disposed below the fixed wings of a glider; saidfwings being pivoted at their adjacent ends to the glider body a hand lever; across head disposed for vertical movement; guide forsaid cross head linkage operatively connecting said cross head and both auxiliary wings; and linkage operatively connecting said cross head and the hand lever.

2. A glider propulsion device consisting of auxiliary wing members disposed below the fixed wings of a glider; said wings being pivoted at their acentends to the gliderbody; and are provided with a plurality of shut ters; a hand lever; a cross'head disposed for vertical movement; guide for said cross head; linkage operatively connecting said cross head "and both auxiliary wings ;and linkage operatively connecting said cross head and thehand lever.

3. A glider propulsion device consistingof auxiliary wing members disposed below the f xed wings of glider; said wings being ody; two hinge members adapted to secure the auxiliary wings to the glider body, said hinges disposed so as to converge to a point in front of the glider; a hand lever; a cross head disposed for vertical movement; guide for said cross head; linkage operatively connecting said cross head and both auxiliary wings; and linkage operatively connecting said cross head and the hand lever.

4:. A. glider propulsion device consisting of auxiliary wing members disposed below the fixed wings of a glider; said wings being pivoted at their adjacent ends to the glider ody, and are provided with a plurality of shutters; a hand lever; a cross head disposed for vertical movement; guide for said cross head; linkage operatively connecting said cross head and both auxiliary wings; linkage operatively connecting said cross head and the hand lever; linkage secured to each shutter adapted to close all of the same at once and abutments secured to the fixed wings of the glider adapted to co-act with said shutter linkage to close the same when the auxiliary wings are raised to their upper limit.

5. A glider propulsion device consisting of auxiliary wing members disposed below the fixed wings of a glider; said wings being pivoted at their adjacent ends to the glider body,

and are provided with a plurality of shutters; a hand lever; a cross head disposed for vertical movement; guide for said cross head; linkage operatively connecting said cross head and both auxiliary wings; linkage operatively connecting said, cross head and the hand lever; linkage secured to each shut ter adapted to close all of the same at once; abutments secured to the fixed wings of the glider adapted to co-act with said shutter linkage to close the same when the auxiliary wings are raised to theirupper'limit; and resilient means, each secured at one end to the glider body and at the other end to the auxiliary wings adapted to counterbalance the weight of the said wings.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 28th day of August, A. D;

GUSTAV A. MILLER.

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