General Electric Company

Fran Rich Chi Associates

Frank R Chiappetta

Kenneth L Johnson

Christopher L Frame

Mostafa S Afifi

Combined toy helicopter and automobile

A ducted fan 20 provides lift to a flying vehicle 10. The ducted fan includes direction control vanes (1, 2, 3, 4) for controlling torques applied to the vehicle, and also includes lift negation vanes (305, 306, 307, 308), which control the available lift. The lift negation vanes are oriented with their longitudinal axes parallel to the forward-aft axis (9) of the vehicle in order to reduce drag at high forward velocities. The thrust negation vanes include fixed (305) and movable (305M) portions, with the movable portions rotatable so as to extend into the duct airflow to cause turbulence. The direction control vanes are airfoils arranged for rotation about their quarter-chord axes (410), which reduces the amount of torque required for rotation of the direction-control vanes. This, in turn, allows stepper motors (924a) to be used to drive the vanes. The effects of forward velocity on the ducted fan also creates effects which tend to pitch the vehicle nose-down. A pair of conventional-type horizontally disposed airfoils (44a, 44b) is rotatable for pitch control, and a control system (700) senses airspeed, and provides a compensating rotation of the airfoils.

Air-land vehicle with ducted fan vanes providing improved performance

A flying vehicle has wheels for highways, and a body and an engine. The body, engine and load define a center of mass (CG). Shrouded fans are located about the CG so as to produce, in conjunction with air jet redirection apparatus, the torques required to assume various attitudes. In one embodiment, an upper shrouded fan, with a diameter no greater than eight feet, produces an air jet, centered above the CG, for lifting the body. A second shrouded fan, smaller than the first, produces an air jet for lift, centered below the center of mass, on the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, forward of the CG. Third and fourth paired shrouded fans produce air jets for lift, centered below the CG, on either side of the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, toward the rear of the body. The paired second and third fans have equal diameters, no greater than half of the diameter of the upper fan, to keep the total width eight feet. The engine is coupled to the fans during flight, for driving them at speeds which are in a mutually fixed ratio, with the rotation direction of the upper fan contrary to the directions of rotation of the other three, whereby rotational moments are substantially canceled. Movable flap arrangements are coupled to the shrouded fans, for redirecting the air jets, for providing directional forward, aft, left, and right translation, and rotation motions, and pitch and roll attitudes.

Air-land vehicle

A stowable and self-deployable array antenna includes flat, rectangular antenna panels hinged side-by-side so that when deployed they are coplanar, and they fold like an accordion for stowing. The deployed array antenna is stiffened by lateral stiffening panels hingedly attached to every other hinge between antenna panels, and to the unhinged ends of the antenna panels. Foldable longitudinal stiffening panels hinged between adjacent lateral stiffening panels. Each hinged connection includes a pair of thin spring elements, corresponding to a portion of a cylinder. The two spring elements of each hinge are spaced apart with their concave sides facing, and with the axes of the defining cylinder parallel. The hinge pivots, when the spring elements buckle, about a line orthogonal to a line extending between the cylinder axes. The hinges are used as the structural elements of self-deployable masts. The mast may have a polygonal cross-section.

Hinge element and deployable structures including hinge element

A stowable and self-deployable array antenna includes flat, rectangular antenna panels hinged side-by-side so that when deployed they are coplanar, and they fold like an accordion for stowing. The deployed array antenna is stiffened by lateral stiffening panels hingedly attached to every other hinge between antenna panels, and to the unhinged ends of the antenna panels. Foldable longitudinal stiffening panels are hinged between adjacent lateral stiffening panels. Each hinged connection includes a pair of thin spring elements, corresponding to a portion of a cylinder. The two spring elements of each hinge are spaced apart with their concave sides facing, and with the axes of the defining cylinder parallel. The hinge pivots, when the spring elements buckle, about a line orthogonal to a line extending between the cylinder axes. The hinges are used as the structural elements of self-deployable masts. The mast may have a polygonal cross-section.

Stowable and deployable antenna array

A multifrequency antenna includes a main reflector for signals in a low frequency band. One or more portions of the main reflector are deformed to provide one or more auxiliary reflectors for signals in one or more higher frequency bands. The feed for the low frequency band is located axially of the main reflector, while the feeds for the higher frequency bands are offset to the side of the low frequency feed. The lateral and axial offsets of the vertex of an auxiliary high frequency reflector from the vertex of the main low frequency reflector and the focal length of the auxiliary high frequency reflector are selected to minimize the degradation of the performance in the low frequency band.

Growing community of inventors

Berwyn, PA, United States of America

Frank R Chiappetta