Month in the Patent Office

Abstract

An aircraft powered by a gas‐turbine jet‐propulsion engine, the exhaust gases from which are discharged rearwardly through a jet pipe as a propulsive jet stream for normal forward flight, is provided with a fan mounted with its axis vertical, the fan drawing in air from atmosphere and discharging an air stream downwardly so as to produce an upward component of thrust on the aircraft, and means operable at will for diverting the exhaust gases from the jet pipe to drive the fan. The delta‐wing aircraft shown in FIG. 1 is powered by a gas‐turbine jet‐propulsion engine 3 which discharges exhaust gases as a propulsive jet stream through a jet pipe 5. An intermediate pipe 5a between the engine and the jet pipe is connected with two branch pipes 7 and is provided with a valve (not shown) which allows any desired proportion of the exhaust gases to be diverted into the branch pipes. The aircraft is provided with two fans, one in each wing, which rotate in opposite directions to balance out gyroscopic effects. As shown in FIG. 2, each fan rotor 12 comprises rotor blades 12b, a shroud ring 12c connecting the tips of the rotor blades, and a row of axial flow turbine rotor blades 12dmounted on the outer surface of the shroud ring. Exhaust gases diverted through the hand pipes 7 are supplied to these turbine rotor blades through a turbine inlet volute 13 which has a downwardly facing outlet provided with turbine nozzle vanes 14 co‐operating with the turbine rotor blades 12d. Rows of stator blades 19, 20 are provided above and below the fan rotor blades 12b, and these blades may be adjustable to enable the vertical lift to be varied; the pitch of the fan rotor blades may also be variable. Control of the aircraft may be effected by differential control of the blading of the two fans; alternatively or in addition the turbine nozzle vanes 14 may be adjustable. The inlets and outlets of the fans may communicate with the atmosphere through apertures in the wings which may be opened or closed by pivoted vanes 21, 22 which may be operated differentially to control the aircraft. Alternatively the inlets may be connected to one or more boundary layer suction openings in the surface of the aircraft. Additional fans 23, 24 may be mounted in the wing tips and nose of the aircraft to control the aircraft, these fans being driven by compressed air bled off from the compressor of the engine 3.

Citation

(1959), "Month in the Patent Office", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 31 No. 12, pp. 381-381. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb033194