United Technologies Corporation

United States of America as Represented by the Secretary of the Air Force

Edward B Thayer

Eric J Ward

George H McLafferty

Jim D Stewart

Jefre H Cockerham

Philip R Scott

Gary D Roberge

Debora F Kehret

Donald E Johnson

Richard J Peckham

Thomas A Roach

Lane Porter

Rafael A Bustamante

Paul W Herrick

Herman L Stevens

An exhaust nozzle for a gas turbine engine where pitch and yaw vectoring is achieved using fluidics by injecting high pressure air into the exhaust stream. The injected high pressure air deflects the exhaust stream, vectoring the aircraft accordingly. The injected high pressure air for vectoring is selectively injected. A pivoting manifold 44 allows for injection of either ram air (52) or vectoring high pressure air (56) into the exhaust flow.

Vectoring nozzle using injected high pressure air

This invention relates to rocket engines which have a rocket nozzle for expanding hot, highly pressurized rocket gases and more particularly, to a high expansion ratio nozzle for such an engine.

Rocket nozzle for a rocket engine

A diverging rocket engine nozzle has a system to allow ambient gases to flow from the outside to the inside of the nozzle's chamber. The system includes a plurality of coolant conduits adjacent the inside surface of the nozzle. The conduits are spaced apart to provide a plurality of vent openings which extends from the inside to the outside of the nozzle's chamber. A plurality of valves controls gas flow through the vent passages when the pressure outside of the nozzle is greater than the pressure directly adjacent the inside surface of the nozzle. The coolant conduits cool and shield the valves at their points of attachment to the outside of the nozzle.

A rocket engine thrust nozzle assembly is disclosed wherein combustion products from a plurality of rocket engines having hexagonally-shaped exhaust areas flow to the inlet of a main nozzle that transitions the flow of the combustion products from a non-circular flow area to a circular flow area.

Hexagonal cluster nozzle for a rocket engine

An exhaust nozzle has variable convergent flaps, ejector flaps, and short divergent flaps spaced inwardly from the ejector flaps, cooling air is introduced through the opening between the divergent and ejector flaps. When the nozzle is vectored, the size of the opening is increased in the region of the nozzle experiencing higher static pressure.

Gas turbine vectoring exhaust nozzle

A plug nozzle is convertible to and from an open nozzle by moving several components. The convergent flap moves between an outboard convergent flap position and a central plug position. Divergent flaps, hinged to the convergent flaps, move between the outboard divergent flap position and a central contacting position within the plug. Plug surface flaps are moved to the inboard position where they form the plug surface from an outboard position.

Convertible plug nozzle

A thrust vectoring exhaust nozzle (10) includes a plurality of flaps (16-22) and seals (24-28) positioned by a unison ring (52) and flap links (54-60).

Axisymmetric nozzle with gimbled unison ring

Doors sealing radial flow ports are opened by rotation which slides the doors away from the ports. All doors rotate about a longitudinal centerline of the aircraft. Each flow port has its inlet seal surface with a center of curvature offset from the longitudinal axis. Rotation of the door toward the open position relieves and releases contact between the door and the port inlet seal surface.

Aircraft reverser port door

Increased aircraft control is achieved by combining reverse thruster operation with splay capability. Each of the four door sets has a pair of vanes controllable to various parallel positions. Maximum opening at 26.degree. from the vertical decreases in each direction from the maximum position. The vanes may be controlled to effect yaw and pitch control while maintaining a constant total effective flow area. Back pressure on the turbine is thereby unaffected.

In-flight reverser

A spherical exhaust nozzle for a gas turbine engine having gimbal mounted convergent-divergent flaps in which cooling air for the flaps is ducted through the convergent flap pivots and the convergent flaps are actuated by actuators connected to the gimbal structure.

Gas turbine spherical exhaust nozzle

A yaw and pitch thrust vectoring exhaust nozzle (10) includes upper and lower divergent flap assemblies (22, 24) each divided by oppositely skewed diagonal hinges (58, 60). Vertical sidewalls (27, 28) are also hinged to open the nozzle outlet laterally during yaw thrust.

Yaw thrust vectoring exhaust nozzle

A yaw and pitch thrust vectoring exhaust nozzle includes a spherical collar, and two surrounding clam shells hinged to a gimbal ring and pivotal about an axis perpendicular to the clam shell hinge axis. The clam shells define a variable area nozzle throat (42) which can be selectively directed vertically by rotation of the clam shells about the hinge axis (38), or horizontally by rotation of the clam shells and gimbal ring about the pivot axis (30), thereby biasing the nozzle exhaust flow vector. Divergent flaps (44, 46) further direct the exhaust downstream of the nozzle throat (42). '

Yaw and pitch convergent-divergent thrust vectoring nozzle

A divergent flap actuation system for a two-dimensional exhaust nozzle for a gas turbine engine powered aircraft includes stationary sidewalls (2) and (3) with oppositely disposed movable divergent flaps (10) and (39) located therebetween, and flush mounted rotatable divergent disks (22) and (49) with drive pins (21) and (48) attached thereto for engaging the flaps. Each divergent disk utilizes an individual actuator to provide independent movement of the rearward edges of the flaps in response to disk rotation. Utilizing flush mounted disks for controlling the position of the rearward edges of the opposed flaps minimizes sidewall thickness and allows use of full length, tapered sidewalls to minimize drag and nozzle weight while maximizing flexibility in thrust control.

Divergent flap actuation system for a two-dimensional exhaust nozzle

A thrust vectoring exhaust nozzle (6) is provided with a vent bypass (38) and flow control valve (44) to vent a portion (43) of the exhaust gas (2) only during diversion of the exhaust gas (2) into an alternative gas flow path (18).

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Palm Beach Gardens, FL, United States of America

Edward B Thayer