Abstract: An air lifting vehicle includes, inter alia, a main frame containing an engine, a helicopter-type rotor driven by the engine, a rear located propeller which provides torque compensation for the rotor as well as yaw control for the vehicle, and a pilot's cabin. Attached to the frame through a plurality of outwardly extending truss members is a keel structure which includes a circular truss section essentially coaxial with and positioned above the rotor and other generally triangular or rounded triangular truss sections attached fore and aft of the circular truss section. Balloon members including fore and aft generally triangular Forlanini envelope sections are secured to the keel and laced together at the center to define a circular opening or duct above the rotor. A pair of forward thrusting propellers are driven by an auxiliary engine carried in the frame and are gimbaled in the elevational plane for pitch control of the vehicle.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
March 24, 1977
Date of Patent:
September 19, 1978
Assignee:
Skagit Corporation
Inventors:
Vladimir H. Pavlecka, David G. McIntyre
Abstract: A balloon filled with buoyant gas provides the major part of the required lift. A pair of spaced rings are supported by a rigging having a plurality of lines supported by the upper half of the balloon at approximately the vertical center of the balloon. Each of a pair of helicopter blade units is rotatably mounted on a corresponding one of the rings. A frame is supported by the rigging beneath the balloon and has a passenger's bicycle type seat mounted thereon, a pedal-operated sprocket wheel rotatably mounted thereon and a plurality of landing wheels rotatably mounted thereon. The sprocket wheel is coupled to the helicopter blade units in a manner whereby a passenger seated in the seat and pedalling the sprocket wheel in any position between central and forward positions contrarotates the torque-balancing blade units for providing additional lift and forward propulsion force. A rudder is movably mounted on the frame and is controlled in direction by the passenger for directing the aircraft in flight.
Abstract: A winged aircraft, adapted to takeoff and land with its longitudinal axis at a very steep angle of inclination, including: balloons that have a center of buoyancy forward of the center of gravity and tend to turn the craft into the said steep angle; a controllable-thrust stern-elevating propeller in an upright wind tunnel, having a lift rearward of the center of gravity that in horizontal flight balances the torque of the balloons; and an elongated, stiffly resilient body frame of a multiplicity of inflated small tubes extending in the fore-and-aft direction, supported by longitudinally spaced, rounded ribs, disks or the like. This frame is round in the middle and somewhat streamlined at each end, its stern portion rearwardly sloping downward at its top and upward at its bottom. The assembly of tubes, preferably extending from the foremost to the rearmost parts of the frame, is flattened into substantially linear, horizontal shape at the rear portion.
Abstract: Various modifications are disclosed of the composite aircraft, which is the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,236 by this same inventor. The control console is supported from the center of the upper rotating balloon sphere instead of its south pole to reduce the periodic motion of the console about its point of attachment to the sphere. The console is supported from the center of an inner framework through a tapered indentation in the bottom of the sphere. A lift command control system determines the angle of attack of each wing about the periphery of the sphere to provide the force required to generate movement of the sphere in a preselected direction. If the wing experiences a gust, the force reaction compels the wing to seek a different angle of attack to keep the new force in balance with the command force exerted by the control on the wing to automatically provide gust control. A pneumatic lift command control system is illustrated.