Patent Application
20150274289
This disclosure relates to vertical takeoff and landing aircraft and to methods for flying them.
Most aircraft are not capable of vertical flight operations, such as vertical landing, vertical takeoff, and hover. Aircraft that are capable of vertical operations typically utilize systems that are not efficient for both vertical flight and horizontal flight.
An aircraft and method of flight is needed to resolve one or more issues of one or more of the existing aircrafts or methods of flight.
In one embodiment, an aircraft includes at least one wing-mounted thrust-producing device and at least two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices. The at least one wing-mounted thrust-producing device is moveably attached to at least one wing of the aircraft and configured to move from a landing/takeoff/hover configuration in which the at least one wing-mounted thrust-producing device provides thrust in a vertical direction to a flight configuration in which the at least one wing-mounted thrust-producing device provides the thrust in a horizontal direction. The at least two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices are attached to a fuselage of the aircraft.
In another embodiment, an aircraft includes two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices and two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices. The two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices are moveably attached to opposed wings of the aircraft. The two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices are attached to a fuselage of the aircraft. When the aircraft is in horizontal flight the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices are configured to provide horizontal thrust and the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices are configured to not provide any thrust. When the aircraft is landing, taking off, or hovering each of the two wing-mounted thrust-producing devices and the two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices are configured to provide vertical thrust.
In still another embodiment, a method of flying an aircraft is disclosed. In one step, the aircraft takes off, lands, or hovers with at least one wing-mounted thrust-producing device attached to at least one wing of the aircraft and at least two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices attached to a fuselage of the aircraft both providing vertical thrust. In another step, the aircraft is flown while the at least one wing-mounted thrust-producing device provides horizontal thrust and with the at least two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices not providing any thrust.
The scope of the present disclosure is defined solely by the appended claims and is not affected by the statements within this summary.
The disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawings and description. The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the disclosure.
In step 54, the at least one wing-mounted thrust-producing device is moved (or rotated) from a first configuration in which the at least one wing-mounted thrust-producing device provides vertical thrust to a second configuration in which the at least one wing-mounted thrust-producing device provides horizontal thrust. In step 56, the at least one panel is moved from an open configuration in which the at least one panel does not cover the at least two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices during the taking off, landing, or hovering of the aircraft to a closed configuration in which the at least one panel covers the at least two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices during the horizontal flying of the aircraft. In one embodiment, in step 56 two or more panels are moved to a closed configuration so that they cover two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices during the flying of the aircraft. In other embodiments, any number of panels may be moved so that they cover any number of fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices during the flying of the aircraft. In step 58, the aircraft is flown while the at least one wing-mounted thrust-producing device provides the horizontal thrust and with the at least two fuselage-mounted thrust-producing devices not providing any thrust. In still other embodiments, any of the steps of the method 50 may be varied in substance, in order, or not followed, or one or more additional steps may be added.
One or more embodiments of the disclosure may overcome one or more issues of one or more of the existing aircraft and methods of flight by providing an aircraft and method which allows for the same system of the aircraft to be efficiently used for both vertical operations and horizontal flight.
The Abstract is provided to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separately claimed subject matter.
While particular aspects of the present subject matter described herein have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be made without departing from the subject matter described herein and its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true scope of the subject matter described herein. Furthermore, it is to be understood that the disclosure is defined by the appended claims. Accordingly, the disclosure is not to be restricted except in light of the appended claims and their equivalents.
