Aircraft lifting surface with variable sweep distribution along the span

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9718534-B2
Application number	US-201313942880-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 16, 2013
Priority date	Jul 16, 2012
Publication date	Aug 1, 2017
Grant date	Aug 1, 2017

Abstract

An aircraft lifting surface attached to the rear or frontal end of the aircraft fuselage with a variable sweep angle α in an inboard part and with a constant sweep angle α 1 in an outboard part. The aircraft lifting surface can be for example a horizontal tail plane or a vertical tail plane attached to the rear end fuselage or a canard attached to the frontal end fuselage.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An aircraft comprising:
a fuselage of a tubular shape with frontal and rear ends having a variable cross-sectional area,
a wing attached to the central part of the fuselage and at least a lifting surface attached to one of the fuselage rear end and the fuselage frontal end,
wherein said lifting surface is configured with a sweep angle formed between an aircraft plane of symmetry and a projection line formed by reference points located at 25% of a local chord length of the lifting surface on a plane perpendicular to the aircraft plane of symmetry, and wherein the sweep angle in an inboard part of the lifting surface comprises a variable sweep angle α and wherein the sweep angle in an outboard part of the lifting surface comprises a constant sweep angle α 1 ,
and wherein the lifting surface is attached to the fuselage rear end;
the variable sweep angle α in the inboard part of the lifting surface is lower along its span than the constant sweep angle α 1 in the outboard part of the lifting surface.

2. The aircraft according to claim 1 , wherein the cross-sectional area of the fuselage rear end decreases continuously along its length.

3. The aircraft according to claim 1 , wherein the variable sweep angle α in the inboard part increases along its span.

4. The aircraft according to claim 1 , wherein the length of the inboard part of the lifting surface comprises between 0-70% of a total length of the lifting surface.

5. The aircraft according to claim 1 , wherein:
the lifting surface comprises a leading edge, a torsion box and a trailing edge;
the torsion box comprises straight frontal and rear spars.

6. The aircraft according to claim 1 , wherein the lifting surface is one of a horizontal tail plane and a vertical tail plane, with one of a backward and forward sweep angle.

7. An aircraft comprising:
a fuselage of a tubular shape with frontal and rear ends having a variable cross-sectional area,
a wing attached to the central part of the fuselage and at least a lifting surface attached to one of the fuselage rear end and the fuselage frontal end, wherein the wing comprises a backward swept horizontal tail plane, and,
wherein said lifting surface is configured with a sweep angle formed between an aircraft plane of symmetry and a projection line formed by reference points located at 25% of a local chord length of the lifting surface on a plane perpendicular to the aircraft plane of symmetry, and wherein the sweep angle in an inboard part of the lifting surface comprises a variable sweep angle α and wherein the sweep angle in an outboard part of the lifting surface comprises a constant sweep angle α 1 .

Assignees

• Airbus Operations Sl
• Airbus Operations Sl

Inventors

• Pascual Fuertes Angel
• Rodriguez Sanchez Sergio

Classifications

• B64C39/12

  Canard-type aircraft · CPC title

• B64C5/04

  Noseplanes · CPC title

• B64C3/10 Primary

  Shape of wings · CPC title

• B64C5/02

  Tailplanes · CPC title

• B64C3/40 Primary

  Varying angle of sweep · CPC title