Patent ID: 6966526
Filing Date: 2005-11-22
Classification: B64C,F42B

Abstract:
1. A Dragless Flight Control System for controlling the flight of a flying object while minimizing drag, said control system residing in said object and said object being defined by an exterior skin and having a guidance computer therein for generating new positional command signal, said control system comprising: at least one pair of first housing and second housing, said housings being recessed inside said flying object and each having an opening communicating with said exterior skin; at least one pair of first and second fins positioned inside said housings, respectively, said fins each being exposable outside said exterior skin and being completely retractable into said housings through said openings, said first and second fins being mounted to rotate in mutually opposite directions and to have rotation vectors normal to said exterior skin, said fins further being rotatable by variable corrective angles; a means for ascertaining current rotational position of said fins; an electronic controller coupled between said ascertaining means and said guidance computer, said controller generating a signal representative of a corrective angle in response to current rotational position information from said ascertaining means and said command signal from said computer, said controller then further producing a voltage command corresponding to said corrective angle; a drive motor coupled to said electronic controller to receive said voltage command and generate a corresponding torque; a first motor drive gear; a second motor drive gear; a motor transmission coupled between said drive motor and said motor drive gears to multiply said torque selectively prior to delivering said torque to said motor drive gears; a first fin gear shaft and a second fin gear shaft, said fin gear shafts being rotationally coupled to their respective fins so as to allow said fins to rotate; a first fin gear coupled between said first fin gear shaft and said first motor drive gear to transmit said torque from said first motor drive gear to said first fin gear shaft to enable said first fin gear shaft to rotate said first fin; and a second fin gear coupled between said second fin gear shaft and said second motor drive gear to transmit said torque from said second motor drive gear to said second fin gear shaft to enable said second fin gear shaft to rotate said second fin, said first and second fins always rotating simultaneously but in opposite directions, thereby exposing one fin while retracting the other fin until said corrective angle is obtained, thereby achieving desired degree of control of said object's flight.