VTOL aircraft

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11021245-B2
Application number	US-201916450167-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 24, 2019
Priority date	Jul 12, 2018
Publication date	Jun 1, 2021
Grant date	Jun 1, 2021

Abstract

A vertical take-off and landing aircraft is shown. The VTOL aircraft has a main wing having a left wing and a right wing configured as folding wings, and one or more of a foreplane, having a left canard and a right canard configured as folding wings, and/or a tailplane, having a left stabiliser and a right stabiliser configured as folding wings. Each one of the folding wings has a fixed inboard section and a folding outboard section. The folding outboard section is downwardly foldable to a landing condition to support the aircraft on a surface.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vertical take-off and landing aircraft comprising:
a main wing comprising a left wing and a right wing configured as folding wings; and
one or more of:
a foreplane, comprising a left canard and a right canard configured as folding wings, and/or
a tailplane, comprising a left stabilizer and a right stabilizer configured as folding wings;

 wherein each one of said folding wings has a fixed inboard section and a folding outboard section, the folding outboard section being downwardly foldable to a landing condition to support the aircraft on a surface.

2. The aircraft of claim 1 , wherein each folding outboard section has a wingtip comprising a pad configured to contact the surface.

3. The aircraft of claim 1 , in which the main wing and foreplane and/or tailplane are located at the same height with respect to a vertical axis of the aircraft.

4. The aircraft of claim 1 , in which each folding outboard section has the same span.

5. The aircraft of claim 1 , in which the main wing and foreplane and/or tailplane are separated in height by an amount ΔH with respect to a vertical axis of the aircraft.

6. The aircraft of claim 5 , in which the folding outboard section of the left wing and the right wing have a span that differs by the amount ΔH from the span of the folding outboard sections of the left canard and the right canard and/or left stabilizer and right stabilizer.

7. The aircraft of claim 1 , in which each folding outboard section folds to an angle parallel with a vertical axis of the aircraft.

8. The aircraft of claim 1 , in which each folding outboard section folds to form a non-zero angle with a vertical axis of the aircraft.

Assignees

• Rolls Royce Plc

Inventors

• James Darren I

Classifications

• B64C3/56

  Folding or collapsing to reduce overall dimensions of aircraft · CPC title

• B64C25/40

  the elements being rotated before touch-down · CPC title

• B64C25/66

  Convertible alighting gear; Combinations of different kinds of ground or like engaging elements · CPC title

• B64C29/00 Primary

  Aircraft capable of landing or taking-off vertically, e.g. vertical take-off and landing [VTOL] aircraft (rotorcraft B64C27/00) · CPC title

• B64C39/12

  Canard-type aircraft · CPC title