Abstract: In a gyro horizon type of equipment, roll corrections are fed to the aircraft symbol which is a normally fixed display element and pitch correction is introduced on a movable display element or drum with modification of the position of the display elements of the instrument gyro as a function of an interconnection of the instrument gyro with a gyromaster reference through comparators connected to each of the roll and pitch systems.

Abstract: A liquid bearing having general utility but beneficial use in a gyroscope comprising Peltier elements which remove heat from a holder and from the thrust and journal bearing, and a low viscosity lubricant such as n-heptane or a fluorocarbon is introduced into the evacuated gyroscope casing to fill the voids therein. The low viscosity lubricant surrounds the journal and thrust bearings. When a source of current is applied to the Peltier element, heat is removed from the journal and thrust bearings and a condensate of the low viscosity lubricant is formed on the untreated bearing surfaces, thus cooling the bearing. This heat is conducted away from the bearing surfaces via the holder, the bearing sleeve, and the Peltier elements. Grooves are formed on the bearing shaft to urge flow of the low viscosity lubricant through and around the bearing surfaces by capillary action. An alternate manner for removal of heat from the bearing surfaces, in lieu of the Peltier elements, is provided in the use of a heat pump.

Abstract: A ring laser gyro body is rotationally dithered about a single cantilevered flexure pivot and its rotational vibration is isolated by a counter-rotating mass driven from the gyro body by a tightly coupled linkage.

Abstract: An electrostatic pickoff well suited for use in a two-axis electrostatically-captured rotor rate gyroscope is shown. Displacement currents, which flow between stator electrodes and the V-shaped annular electrically conductive rotor capturing the rotor, are processed so as to produce signals related to rotor position but independent of capture currents. When closed through a 5 degree-of-freedom positional servomechanism, rotor position signals are effective in producing rotor capture with net zero rotor current without producing rotor distorting forces.

Abstract: A two-axis rate gyroscope of the captured type is provided having a cylindrical rotor with one or more inwardly projecting flanges. The rotor is disposed within a sealed toroidal cavity in a rotor housing and the interior of the cavity is evacuated to a "hard" vacuum. An electrostatic suspension system restrains the rotor from translatory movement along the gyroscope spin axis and two axes perpendicular thereto so that a virtually frictionless spin bearing is provided for the rotor. The suspension system functions to prevent relative angular rotation between the rotor and the rotor housing about two precession axes. The rotor housing is mounted on a flexure joint which prevents translatory movement of the housing along three orthogonal axes but permits rotational movement of the housing about the two precession axes.

Abstract: Gyroscopic apparatus in which the rotor is elastically-connected to its drive, whereby deflection of the rotor bends the connection and thus sets up a deflection torque which acts upon the rotor. The connection of the rotor to the drive also includes masses carried by springs. When the rotor deflects, these masses oscillate in directions parallel to the driving axis, and when the rotor is spinning at a certain (tuning) speed the sum of the oscillating forces exerted upon the rotor by the individual moving masses will be a steady quantity which may be made equal and opposite to the deflection torque. The apparatus may thus behave like a "free rotor" gyroscope.

Abstract: A floated gyroscope having a float pivoted within a housing for limited rotational movement is provided with a rotational limit control for limiting rotation when the gyroscope is not in use. The rotational limit control includes a locating pin mounted on either the float or the housing, and cooperating limit arms mounted on the other of the float and housing.

Abstract: A spherical inertial platform has a plurality of rotary torquer units spaced around the periphery thereof for torquing the platform relative to its housing in response to stabilization signals thereby to stabilize the platform. The torquer units, which may comprise ball shaped rotors which are torqued in response to stabilizing signals fed to armatures associated therewith, provide a mechanical coupling between the housing and the platform so as to impart the stabilizing torquing forces to such platform; an effective gear ratio being provided between the torquer units and the platform.

Abstract: A gyroscopic instrument which may be a compass includes a hollow sphere enclosing at least one motor-driven gyroscope and floating in an electrically conductive liquid within the inner surface of revolution of a vessel surrounding the sphere at a distance therefrom providing for a gap therebetween. A motor-driven pump circulates the liquid through an inlet of the vessel, through the gap, through an outlet of the vessel and through a passageway back to the pump. The surfaces confining the gap have pairs of opposite conductive electrode portions for conducting electrical energy to the motor-driven gyroscope or gyroscopes. The liquid circulating through the gap exerts a bearing pressure on the sphere holding it spaced from the inner surface of the vessel. For this purpose the gap has a relatively narrow bearing zone communicating with the inlet and a relatively wider zone communicating with the outlet.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is an arrangement for counteracting mass unbalance in a rotatable assembly, such as the rotor assembly of a gyroscope. The invention proposes the use of two coaxially and mutually independently rotatably displaceable, mass eccentricity-producing balance weights, of which each can be assembled with a support element forming part of the rotatable assembly in any one of a great number of angular orientations.

Abstract: A dynamically tuned gyroscope having a single gimbal has torsion flexures with torsional stiffnesses such that, at its tuned speed, the gyroscope is insensitive to angular vibration at a frequency of twice the rotor rotational speed. The drive shaft is connected to a first torsion flexure having an effective torsional stiffness K.sub.1 of zero, K.sub.1 being made zero by the use of ball races or pivots, by known mechanical methods such as over-center or toggle spring action, or by the use of magnetic or electrostatic systems. The rotor is connected to a second torsion flexure which is orthogonal to the first flexure. The second torsion flexure has a torsional stiffness K.sub.2 equal to 4w.sup.2 r.sub.3.sup.2 m.sub.3 where w is the tuned rotor speed, m.sub.3 is the component mass of a gimbal, on which the torsion flexures are mounted, on an axis through the center of gravity of the gimbal and normal to the plane of the gimbal, and r.sub.3 is the distance of the component mass m.sub.

Abstract: A floating bearing having a stationary member and an axially translating member including a pair of O-rings which in combination with surfaces of the movable member and the stationary member define a contained space which is further subdivided by an extension of a surface of either the translating member or the stationary member to form two chambers substantially enclosed but connected through a restricted space formed by the extremity of the extension and a proximate opposing surface of the other member. The chambers are substantially filled with a viscous fluid which provides damping of axial displacements of said movable member relative to said stationary member produced in vibratory environments.

Abstract: A fan having a single degree of freedom to torsionally oscillate in a horizontal plane which in one version oscillates about a fixed vertical axis, self-excited by an aerodynamic couple created by feathering vertically disposed vanes which are symmetrically located adjacent the tips of the fan blades on the air inflow side thereof, and in another version which oscillates about a pendulous axis, self-excited by precession of the rotating fan and motor armature as a pendulous gyro.