Abstract: A multi-range, dissipative, infinitely variable ratio transmission has a planetary gearset with at least four distinct gear components including an input gear, an output gear and a pair of independently rotatable gears; a first hydroviscous brake connected to one of the rotatable gears; a second hydroviscous brake connected to the other of said rotatable gears; and a circuit including brake operating units for selecting which of said brakes is operable and for controlling the amount of slip of the operable brake in order to cover all combinations of input and output speed within their respective ranges with minimal slip of a hydroviscous brake to maximize efficiency of the transmission.

Abstract: A starter-generator drive usable in an aircraft must be of the smallest possible size and the lowest possible weight and have maximum reliability. A drive having a multi-speed transmission and a controllable hydro-viscous dissipative clutch can be interposed between an engine and a starter-generator to achieve maximum efficiency in the drive and meets the foregoing objectives.The starter-generator drive has a multi-speed transmission for stepping the input speed from an engine to a hydro-viscous dissipative clutch to provide plural speed ranges of operation and thus limit the amount of slip that occurs within the clutch in each range to provide the constant speed drive of the generator. The dissipative clutch operates in a hydro-viscous manner whereby sudden changes of speed, as the multi-speed transmission shifts, do not vary the torque transmitted to the generator and therefore the speed of the generator.

Abstract: This invention relates to a hydraulic control system for an aircraft starter-drive mechanism that includes a generator that can be driven as a motor drivingly connected through a differential, which is mutually connected to first and second hydraulic units and to an engine drive shaft during a start mode. The hydraulic control system includes a control valve arrangement, cooperatively coupled to the first and second hydraulic units, and operative in the starting mode to control flow between the hydraulic units, to thereby divide the delivery of rotary power from the generator/motor to the engine drive shaft through the differential and the hydraulic units.

Abstract: An integrated drive-generator system having a drive input shaft with a mechanical differential positioned in coaxial relation with the drive input shaft, a generator positioned alongside said differential and drive input shaft, and a hydrostatic transmission having a pair of coaxial hydraulically interconnected units positioned alongside said differential and drive input shaft and circumferentially spaced from said generator. A pair of drive connections to said differential are at one end of said hydrostatic transmission and the generator is drivingly connected to another element of the differential and with all of the interconnecting drive elements being located in a generally planar relation at the top of a housing for the system.