초록 ▼

A tail sitter airplane will take off and land on its tail section, with its fuselage and nose pointed up. The airplane has a single driven propeller mounted to the nose section. Wings extend outward from the fuselage. Four airfoils locate in the tail section, two horizontal and two vertical. Each ha

A tail sitter airplane will take off and land on its tail section, with its fuselage and nose pointed up. The airplane has a single driven propeller mounted to the nose section. Wings extend outward from the fuselage. Four airfoils locate in the tail section, two horizontal and two vertical. Each has a control surface. Four additional airfoils locate in a forward section, behind the propeller and in front of the wings. Two of the airfoils in the forward section are horizontal and two vertical. Movable control surfaces on these airfoils control the flight during takeoff and landing. The airfoils have chord lengths selected to remove the twist from the slip-stream from the propeller, thereby balancing the torque from the propeller.

대표청구항 ▼

In a single engine tail sitter airplane of a type which has a fuselage with a nose section and a tail section, the airplane being capable of taking off and landing on the tail section with the nose section pointed up for vertical flight and also being capable of cruising with the fuselage horizontal

In a single engine tail sitter airplane of a type which has a fuselage with a nose section and a tail section, the airplane being capable of taking off and landing on the tail section with the nose section pointed up for vertical flight and also being capable of cruising with the fuselage horizontal for horizontal flight, the improvement comprising in combination: the airplane having a single driven propeller, the propeller being mounted to the nose section of the fuselage and driven by the engine for creating a slip-stream; a pair of wings extending from the fuselage; a first tail airfoil extending from the fuselage transverse to the wings and forming a part of the tail section; an array of forward airfoils; control surface means mounted to and forming a part of each of the forward airfoils, the control surface means being movable relative to the fuselage for providing flight control of the airplane; means for mounting the forward airfoils to the fuselage in positions for controlling pitch and yaw of the airplane with the control surface means, each of the forward airfoils extending from the fuselage at a location between the wings and the propeller so as to be within slip-stream of the propeller for controlling flight during takeoff and transition from vertical to horizontal; landing gear means located at the tail section for supporting the airplane on the tail section during take-off and landing with the nose of the fuselage pointed up; and the wings and the forward airfoils having chord dimensions sufficient to remove all of the torque due to the rotating propeller during vertical flight so as to eliminate the need for counter rotating propellers.