Abstract: The Gutter Leaf-Blower is an apparatus conceived to clean rain gutters. The objective is to provide the operator with a user ‘friendly’ means of blowing leaves out of gutters while operating from ground level. The objective was accomplished by mounting an air nozzle on one end of a small lightweight, 6-8 foot rigid tube assembly and, in turn, connecting the input of the air nozzle to the output of an air blower with a flexible air hose. This configuration offers flexibility in the it allows the operator to control the position of the air nozzle relative to the gutter with the extension tube assembly without requiring movement of the blower unit. With this approach, the user can operate from ground level and control the position of the nozzle with either hand while holding the air blower with the other hand like a suitcase.

Abstract: The Gutter Leaf-Blower is an apparatus conceived to clean rain gutters. The objective is to provide the operator with a ‘user friendly’ means of blowing leaves out of gutters while operating from ground level. The objective was accomplished by mounting an air nozzle on one end of a small lightweight, 6-8 foot rigid tube assembly and, in turn, connecting the input of the air nozzle to the output of an air blower with a flexible air hose. This configuration offers flexibility in the it allows the operator to control the position of the air nozzle relative to the gutter with the extension tube assembly without requiring movement of the blower unit. With this approach, the user can operate from ground level and control the position of the nozzle with either hand while holding the air blower with the other hand like a suitcase.

Abstract: The invention is a man-portable firewood splitter and is affordable for personal use. It uses an off-the-shelf hydraulic car jack, an off-the-shelf firewood splitting wedge, and a platform that is configured so that it combines the other two units to provide a firewood splitting function. The components are physically unattached and can be used for other requirements. The platform is somewhat like to a bed with side rails. It consists of two end plates, a bottom, and two side rails. It is structured to withstand the maximum force of the hydraulic jack. To assemble the system, the jack is horizontally placed on the bottom of the platform with the jack base butted against one of the end plates and oriented so that the jack handle is vertical. The blunt end of the splitting wedge is horizontally placed against the ram of the jack.

Abstract: A redundant, dual-fail/operate fly-by-wire control system actuates a redundant tandem piston actuator (10) to provide a single composite output evidenced by movement of a piston rod (12). The basic fault-tolerate actuation system consists of dual hydraulic primary actuators, quadruplex electrical control loops (14-17), and control servo valves (22-25). A failure management system connects to the actuation system by means of lines (18-21) to control the servo valves (22-25). The four control loops (14-17) connect to a pilot controller that provides a pilot individual input signals to amplifiers (26-29) for each of the control loops. A tracking loop (450) includes switches (480, 482, 484) for connecting the four control loops (14-17) and providing isolation therebetween.

Abstract: A redundant, dual-fail/operate fly-by-wire control system actuates a redundant tandem piston actuator (10) to provide a single composite output evidenced by movement of a piston rod (12). The basic fault-tolerate actuation system consists of dual hydraulic primary actuators, quadruplex electrical control loops (14-17), and control servo valves (22-25). A failure management system connects to the actuation system by means of lines (18-21) to control the servo valves (22-25). The four control loops (14-17) connect to a pilot controller that provides pilot individual input signals to amplifiers (26-29) for each of the control loops.

Abstract: In eliminating one-per-rev vibration in a helicopter due to rotor unbalance, a one-per-rev vibration signal manifestation of rotor unbalance is generated and sampled when the rotor blades are successively in alignment with a reference direction during each cycle of rotation of said rotor. A difference signal is generated from the samples to represent by magnitude and phase the character of the unbalance. The rotor is modified in magnitude proportional to the magnitude of the signal and in direction dependent upon the span and chord components of the signal. In one aspect the force track error signal is applied to the input of a cyclic pitch control actuator system dynamically to automatically correct span unbalance forces.