Abstract: A lift-fan airplane lands vertically on dirt, kicking up debris but bringing a landing pad for use by others. The landing pad comprises many long slats hinged to each other at the sides. The slats are of generally increasing widths for rolling up into a tight spiral. This compact state allows low-drag air transport. After landing, the spiral is unrolled. A central slat has two stub axles sticking out the ends. Two men place a large wheel onto each stub axle, then push on the wheels to unroll the landing pad on the ground. An upturned wall at the end of the pad deflects upward the downwash from landing lift-fan VTOL airplanes, creating a shadow zone free of flying debris. This creates safe parking for massed operations. Inflated balloons, wedge-shaped to streamline necessary protuberances, detach and fill any large potholes under the landing pad.

Abstract: A lift-fan airplane lands vertically on dirt, kicking up debris but bringing a landing pad for use by others. The landing pad comprises many long slats hinged to each other at the sides. The slats are of generally increasing widths for rolling up into a tight spiral. This compact state allows low-drag air transport. After landing, the spiral is unrolled. A central slat has two stub axles sticking out the ends. Two men place a large wheel onto each stub axle, then push on the wheels to unroll the landing pad on the ground. An upturned wall at the end of the pad deflects upward the downwash from landing lift-fan VTOL airplanes, creating a shadow zone free of flying debris. This creates safe parking for massed operations. Inflated balloons, wedge-shaped to streamline necessary protuberances, detach and fill any large potholes under the landing pad.

Abstract: In a supersonic aircraft, turbojet engine nacelles each containing two remote fans in the front half of the nacelle, for noise reduction at takeoff. During supersonic flight, a front wedge at the nacelle nose achieves external compression of intake air. The wedge is vertical, sending the airflow left and right inside the nacelle along its side walls. The two flows follow mirror image curved paths on their way to a turbojet, leaving unused space between them to house the fans in tandem. For takeoff, clutches connected to the turbojets's compressors are engaged. Driveshafts turn pinions against a gear on the same shaft as the remote fans. The fan output is discharged backward under the nacelle to produce thrust. The energy to turn the fans is taken from the turbojet cycle. The reduced exhaust jet velocity decreases its noise. Supercharging produces the extra power to turn the remote fans if multistage.

Abstract: A two-spool turbojet built up of major bladed components first developped for unrelated turbofan engine types. The high pressure (“HP”) spool comes from a turbofan which powered a large airliner carrying 300 or more passengers across a continent or an ocean. The low pressure (“LP”) compressor is the fan from a military aircraft's engine or a smaller airliner turbofan, or both. The object is that all the LP compressor output goes into the HP compressor, making a turbojet from existing turbofan components. This saves development costs, and creates an engine for propelling a large aircraft at supersonic speeds more efficiently than by an afterburning turbofan. In the preferred embodiment, the number of stages in the HP spool is halved, saving weight for the addition of a remote fan (known elsewhere) which doubles the air mass flow. That increases propulsive efficiency during subsonic cruise.

Abstract: In a reciprocating engine piston, added equipment to renew the piston pin's oil film once per crankshaft rotation. The equipment is located between the connecting rod's small end and the underside of the piston crown. There is a plunger carrier with a plunger, and a saddle with a plunger bore. The saddle closely straddles the plunger carrier, maintaining the alignment of the arcuate plunger with the arcuate plunger bore, for a plunger stroke without friction. The small end's natural oscillation during crankshaft rotation powers the plunger's working cycle. There is an oil-filling stroke and a delivery stroke. The delivery is to the saddle's top, which is just below the piston crown. The oil pressure pushes upward on the piston crown, lifting the piston slightly and the piston pin bosses off the piston pin. In the small gap thus created, new oil can enter, recreating the oil film.

Abstract: A VTOL aircraft powerplant choosing between a low-power, turbofan mode during cruise flight and a high-power, lift fan mode during vertical flight. Turbofan mode is a gas turbine engine's shaft power driving a remote front fan. Its fan flow goes to thrust for cruising flight. During VTOL, front fan output enters a boost compressor. It produces the compressed air for a combustion chamber which feeds a large lift-fan turbine. That is the implementation of lift-fan mode. The boost compressor has more stages than the front fan and is a big added load. The gas turbine engine is supercharged to turn that added load: Part of the boost compressor output is taken during VTOL. This is a new version of the supercharging. During cruise flight, a low pressure turbine stage is bypassed to match the lesser load. That completes the apparatus for a variable-cycle VTOL engine.

Abstract: In a supersonic aircraft, turbojet engine nacelles each containing two remote fans in the front half of the nacelle, for noise reduction at takeoff. During supersonic flight, a front wedge at the nacelle nose achieves external compression of intake air. The wedge is vertical, sending the airflow left and right inside the nacelle along its side walls. The two flows follow mirror image curved paths on their way to a turbojet, leaving unused space between them to house the fans in tandem. For takeoff, clutches connected to the turbojets's compressors are engaged. Driveshafts turn pinions against a gear on the same shaft as the remote fans. The fan output is discharged backward under the nacelle to produce thrust. The energy to turn the fans is taken from the turbojet cycle. The reduced exhaust jet velocity decreases its noise. Supercharging produces the extra power to turn the remote fans if multistage.

Abstract: An airliner in which the wheel bogies of the main landing gear are stored one behind the other in a narrow, hollow keel at the bottom of the fuselage. The narrow keel replaces the usual voluminous hold under the passenger cabin. This decreases the cross-sectional area of the fuselage, to reduce aerodynamic drag. One main strut of the landing gear angles forward during retraction, while the other strut angles backward. That allows the bogie tandem storage. It also requires swiveling a bogie as it enters the keel. The folding of the drag brace during strut retraction powers the swiveling mechanism. Elsewhere, the side brace folds and twists during retraction. Dividing the main wing spar at the fuselage and passing only the bottom half under the cabin preserves the reduced hold volume. The decreased cross-sectional area allows the passenger cabin to be enlarged. It creates a “wide-body” supersonic airliner able to carry more passengers.

Abstract: A VTOL aircraft powerplant choosing between a low-power, turbofan mode during cruise flight and a high-power, lift fan mode during vertical flight. Turbofan mode is a gas turbine engine's shaft power driving a remote front fan. Its fan flow goes to thrust for cruising flight. During VTOL, front fan output enters a boost compressor. It produces the compressed air for a combustion chamber which feeds a large lift-fan turbine. That is the implementation of lift-fan mode. The boost compressor has more stages than the front fan and is a big added load. The gas turbine engine is supercharged to turn that added load: Part of the boost compressor output is taken during VTOL. This is a new version of the supercharging. During cruise flight, a low pressure turbine stage is bypassed to match the lesser load. That completes the apparatus for a variable-cycle VTOL engine.

Abstract: A positive displacement rotary compound chamber motor comprises a piston rotor and a barrier rotor rotating cooperatively in a ported housing. The piston rotor has a compound piston which during rotation sweeps out a compound working chamber. The barrier rotor has a small piston which sweeps out a high pressure (HP) chamber. A flange on the piston rotor is the barrier for the HP chamber. All pistons mesh with recesses in the rotor assemblies. During operation, the HP chamber is filled with HP gas, which then expands in the compound chamber. A compound piston larger than the small piston achieves a high expansion ratio. A leakage path from the HP chamber to exhaust is blocked by the addition of an intermediate piston and its meshing intermediate recess.