Improvements relating to ram air turbine driven auxiliary power generators

摘要

829,100. Ram air turbines. PLESSEY CO. Ltd. April 17, 1957 [Jan. 17, 1956], No. 1526/56. Class 110 (3). [Also in Group XXXIII] A generator of auxiliary power for an aircraft is arranged to be driven through gearing alternatively by a ram air turbine and a self-contained emergency power unit. A ram air turbine 1 drives through a hollow shaft 5 a member 8 attached to the planet gears 11 of an epicyclic gear formed by the sunwheel 9, a ring gear 10 and planet gears 11. The ring gear 10 is locked by freewheel mechanism 12 against rotation in the direction in which the turbine wheel 1 rotates so that the turbine drives the output shaft 7 connected to a generator unit 13 which must be driven by a prime mover to produce output and which may be, for example, an electrical generator, an hydraulic pump, a compressor, or any other source of servo-power for the aircraft. When the speed of the aircraft is insufficient to supply the required power, a supplementary turbine 14 is put into service. This turbine is preferably a gas turbine and is driven by the combustion of a monofuel such as isopropyl nitrate. The turbine 14 drives the shaft 7 through an epicyclic gear formed by the sun-wheel 15, planet-wheels 18, and outer ring gear 16. The ring gear 16 is prevented from rotating in the direction of rotation of the shaft 6 by the freewheel mechanism 17. During flight at high speeds, the member 19 can freely rotate so that no power is used to drive the turbine 14. At low air speeds, the ring gear 10 freely rotates so that no power is used to drive the turbine 1. In a modification, the member 19 drives the ring gear 10, the freewheel mechanisms 12 and 17 are omitted, the ring gear 16 fixed in the housing 3 and freewheel mechanisms are provided to prevent reverse rotations of the shafts 5, 6. In this case, the amount of power required from the turbine 14 is reduced at those speeds where the power of the turbine 1 is only slightly less than the power required for driving the generator 13.