Patent ID: 7044422
Filing Date: 2006-05-16
Classification: B64C

Abstract:
1. An aircraft for vertical, horizontal and/or stationary flight, comprising: a ducted fan fuselage; a plurality of control surfaces attached to the fuselage for controlling the flight of the aircraft; an engine mounted to the fuselage having an engine shaft that extends longitudinally and is arranged to rotate about a longitudinal axis of the aircraft in a first rotational direction; a propeller, comprising a plurality of blades, mounted to the engine shaft so as to rotate in the first rotational direction that produces sufficient thrust to thereby induce the aircraft into flight and such that air flow is created over the plurality of control surfaces wherein the engine provides sufficient thrust via the propeller so as to power the aircraft through flight envelope that includes vertical take off and landing and horizontal flight and transitions therebetween; and a gyroscopic stabilization ring structure attached circumferentially around the blades of the propeller such that the ring structure rotates with the rotation of the propeller in the first rotational direction with an angular momentum that is selected, with respect to the moment of inertia of the aircraft about at least one axis perpendicular to the first rotational direction, such that the aircraft is gyroscopically stabilized during flight as the ring structure rotates; wherein the ring structure is situated in a recessed formation in an opening of the ducted fan fuselage.