Search results

An aircraft intended for vertical take‐off and comprising an annular wing 1 surrounding and attached to a central fuselage 3, is provided with a supplementary load‐carrying container 6 secured at 8 to the wing 1. The attachments 8 may be releasable in order that the container may be jettisoned to descend by a parachute stored in a compartment 6b. The supplementary load is housed in a compartment 6a and the container is provided with an auxiliary rocket propulsion unit 7 having a thrust so related to the weight of container 6 and the thrust of the main turbo‐jet engine 2 that the resultant thrust P passes through the centre of gravity G. Jet‐deflecting flaps 2a, control surfaces 4 and landing legs 5 are provided. Container 6 may be mounted on the inner wall of wing 1.

The evaluation of information retrieval systems has recently become an important matter. In the past, however, most reports or proposals on this type of work appear largely to have ignored the efficiency of operation of the central core of an IR system, namely those operations concerned in the compilation and use of the index. The only aspects to receive consideration are the physical form of the index and the design of thesauri or classifications. The former activity has been slanted towards the use of computers and has tended to assume that this type of equipment will, ipso facto, give an improved performance but has made no attempt to justify cost factors which may be one hundred times that of conventional techniques. Work on thesauri and classifications, where it has been practical in nature, appears to consist of compiling lists of terms which go out of favour as quickly as any list of subject headings in the past; the more popular theoretical approach is the setting up of models or the use of increasingly abstruse and complex algebras. From the results and conclusions of the experimental work at Cranfield, it would seem that many of these investigations are comparatively trivial.

A wheel comprising a casting comprising a hub and a rim, a tyre‐retaining flange on the rim having an annular shoulder, a grease cup fitted in the end of the hub, a fairing retaining the grease cup in the hub, and having its periphery seated on the annular shoulder on the tyre‐retaining flangc, and means carried by the fairing for retaining the fairing and grease cup against displacement.

This article reports on the possibility of using nickel titanium shape memory alloy (NiTi SMA) plates rather than NiTi SMA wire for actuation application in the aerospace industries.

A scaled-down model of smart aileron was constructed based on NiTi SMA plate and aluminium plate. Prior to the manufacturing process, NiTi SMA plates had to be trained to suit our application. The leading edge was constructed using trained NiTi SMA plates, whereas the trailing edge was constructed using aluminium plates. Pop rivets were used in joining the parts or in the construction of the smart aileron, and riveting was preferred as it is mostly used in the aerospace industry for surface construction. The constructed smart aileron was tested for vertical upward and downward deflection using heat application, and the deflection was measured using deflection transducer. The heat was sourced from heater mat kits that were laminated inside the smart aileron. The temperature and the deflection data were recorded and analyzed.

It was found that NiTi SMA plates could give a deflection on the trailing edge of the smart aileron. The current maximum deflection was found to be 3 mm, which corresponds to aileron rotation of about 0.57 degrees.

The paper presents a hinge-less alternative in bringing the rolling motion of the flight. The constructed model of smart aileron can be used to replace the existing aileron, which is activated through hydraulic systems. So, the newly constructed smart aileron can be used with the benefit of reducing weight, because it does not use the hydraulic systems like the existing one.

In combination with an aeroplane having a wing with an aileron hinged to the rear portion thereof to swing up or down from a neutral position to either an ordinary or extreme deflected position and back again, a control for the aileron comprising an actuating element in the pilot's compartment of the aeroplane, a sleeve connected pivotally to the front portion of the aileron and adapted in response to axial shift thereof to swing said aileron, a plunger having one end thereof fitting within the sleeve and its other end mounted in the wing so that said plunger is rotatable without axial displacement, means between the actuating element and said other end of the plunger for effecting rotation of the plunger in response to control movement of said element, and a roller and cam slot motion imparting connection between the plunger and sleeve operative in response to rotation of said plunger to shift the sleeve axially and thus effect swinging of the aileron, the slot of said connection being of helical design and formed in the sleeve and having the intermediate part thereof adapted to receive the roller when the aileron is in or near its neutral position and arranged so that when the roller is disposed therein the aileron is locked against swinging movement except by rotation of the plunger, and also having one end part thereof adapted to receive the roller when said plunger is rotated in one direction in order to swing upwards the aileron into its ordinary or extreme deflected position and curved and of such pitch that when the roller is therein the aileron is free so that it tends in response to flow of air there‐against during flight of the aeroplane to return downwards to its neutral position, and its other end adapted to receive the roller when the plunger is rotated in the reverse direction in order to swing the aileron downwards into an ordinary or extreme deflected position and curved and of such pitch that when the roller is therein the aileron is free so that it tends in response to flow of air there‐against during flight of the aeroplane to return upwards to its neutral position.

In altitude controls for aircraft engines in which the throttle valve is actuated both manually and by an aneroid‐controlled relay preventing excessive charging of the engine, means are provided for limiting the movement of the relay device so that it may be over‐ridden by the manual control for obtaining extra power at ground levels.

In a receiving aircraft, an elongated rigid probe directed forwardly from the receiving aircraft substantially in the line of flight and terminating in a tip for coupling within a complemental drogue trailing behind a tanker aircraft, means to extend said probe forwardly and to retract it rearwardly with respect to the receiving aircraft whereon it is mounted, stop means fixedly positioned with respect to the receiving aircraft and located adjacent the probe and behind the probe's tip when the probe is in its foremost position the movement of the probe's tip effected by the extending and retracting means being of such extent as to withhold the probe‐coupled drogue from contact with the stop means when the probe is in its foremost position, and to effect contact between the drogue and the stop means, to uncouple the drogue from the probe, before the probe reaches its rearmost position.

An aircraft has a fuselage and a plurality of lifting surfaces, each of the lifting surfaces comprise a portion fixedly attached to the fuselage and a portion pivotally mounted on the fixed portion for angular displacement about a spanwise axis, a power means mounted on the pivoted portion. The power means includes a compressor. The pivotally mounted portion is provided with a boundary layer removal slot and duct, means leading from the compressor to the slot for removing the boundary layer air.

Cross‐connected engines are fitted with a non‐return valve 12 in the pipe 11 between the pump chamber of one two‐diameter cylinder and the working chamber of an adjoining cylinder. Each pump‐piston is phased 90 deg. in advance of its associated power piston. The valves 12 are controlled by springs enclosed in a sealed chamber, are placed at the power‐cylinder end of the conduits, and closed by the power‐piston at the top of the stroke. They are inclined so as to divert the incoming charge towards the cylinder head, the wall of the inlet port adjacent to the half‐circumference of the valve head which is distant from the cylinder head being a close fit to said half‐circumference.