AN AIRCRAFT WITH A WING PIVOTABLE ABOUT A SPANWISE AXIS

摘要

1,271,102. Convertible aircraft. WESTLAND AIRCRAFT Ltd. 22 Dec., 1969 [7 Jan., 1969], No. 900/69. Headings B7G and B7W. A convertible aircraft has a wing which supports at least two propulsion units and is pivotable about a spanwise axis at approximately the 25% chord of the wing, the axis being below the horizontal centreline of the fuselage. As shown in Fig. 4, the wing 12 is in the vertical position, the aircraft being ready for vertical flight, and the propulsion units are mounted below the undersurface of the wing 12 which is pivotable about axis 16 corresponding to the forward edge of the spar 17 underneath the floor 18 (Fig. 3) of the fuselage 11. The craft is convertible for forward flight by pivoting the wing so that the trailing edge of the spar 17 underneath the fuselage moves upwardly and rearwardly. Fig. 3 shows that the lines of thrust 20 of the propulsion units 14 pass through the centre of gravity 19 of aircraft. In Fig. 2 the wing 12 is set for forward flight. The part of the wing forward of the spar, 24, may fold back on the wing so that the undercarriage may be made shorter when the wing is in the vertical position (Fig. 5, not shown). The wing may fold about axes transverse to and on either side of the central portion 23 of the spar (Fig. 4) when the wings are in the vertical position, so that they lie parallel to the fuselage during storage.