Patents by Inventor Calvan G. DeFreese

Calvan G. DeFreese has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 5267436
    Abstract: Exhaust vectoring control for gas turbine engines having an exhaust nozzle mounted on a ring that is positionally controlled by a plurality of actuators in response to pitch and yaw commands uses signal processing to convert pitch and yaw signals into actuator extensions based upon stored coordinates identifying the location of each actuator connected to the ring in relation to the X, Y and Z reference axes of the engine. The computation of these coordinates takes into account the orientation of the ring. The largest actuator change is selected and limited to a stored maximum allowable change in extension for a fixed or set time interval, such as a signal processor cycle, thereby limiting actuator vector rate. The limited change is divided by the largest computed extension change, producing a ratio or factor that is multiplied by the computed changes for the other actuators, producing a set of actuator signals that are simultaneously applied to their respective actuators for the processor cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 1992
    Date of Patent: December 7, 1993
    Assignee: United Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Coy B. Wood, Jr., Calvan G. DeFreese