Patent GB-1381452-A (GB)
Title: Programmable toy vehicles and toy aircraft
IPC: A63H29/22
Filed: 1973-01-10
Abstract: 1381452 Toy aeroplanes; toy vehicles MATTEL Inc 10 Jan 1973 [6 Nov 1972] 1428/73 Heading A6S [Also in Division F2] A programmable toy vehicle, which may be a toy aeroplane, is powered by a motor which also drives a programmable steering control through a post-motion connection which delays travel of the vehicle, &c along the programmed path for a predetermined time after starting the vehicle, &c, the programmable steering control including a cam retainer to which at least one rotatable cam member can be attached. As shown, a cam 127 is driven through worm gearing 113 by a battery-powered electric motor 53 also driving the propeller 31 of a free-flying toy aeroplane, a follower 141 engaging the cam to control the angular position of the aeroplane rudder 21 and hence the flight path traversed. The cam 127 is detachably mounted on a cam retainer 113, and is one of a set having different control contours 135, &c. The cam 127 is moulded from plastics, and has lipped resilient arms 125 which snap over a rim 121 of the retainer 113 together with a locating tubular bearing socket 129 receiving an axial stud on the retainer. Two radial tabs 131 extending from the socket 129 are engageable by a depending driving pin 119 on the retainer. When a selected cam 127 has been snapped onto the retainer 113, Fig. 3 (not shown), it is rotated forwards until an indexing mark (173) is positioned opposite to an indexing mark on the aeroplane fuselage. During this forward rotation, one of the radial cam tabs 131 may engage the retainer drive pin 119 and thus tend to rotate the worm gearing 113 forwards. One end of a shaft 81 in the gearing 113 is journalled in a readily displaceable socket portion 91, Fig. 6, formed in a flexible end 93 of a gearbox 75 containing the gearing. Once forward rotation of the cam 127 has taken-up lost motion between the appropriate tab 131 and the retainer drive pin 119, continued forward rotation slides the shaft  81 axially, flaring the end 93 of the gearbox, and allowing momentary disengagement of a worm and worm gear 95, 97 as their teeth slide out of mesh. With the cam 127 in its indexed position, the cam follower 141 is so positioned upon the contoured control surface 135, &c that the aeroplane rudder 21 steers the aeroplane straight ahead for a predetermined period, thus enabling it to become airborn. Initial drive by the motor 53 then takesup the lost motion between the drive pin 119 and the appropriate cam tab 131, thus imposing a predetermined time delay before the cam 127 is rotated to steer the aeroplane through its programmed path. The cam follower 141. Fig. 2, is an arm on a piano wire shaft 143, having a connecting arm 145 at one end so fixed to the frame 151 of the aeroplane as to biass the follower against the cam control surface 135, &c. The wire shaft 141 extends the length of the aeroplane fuselage through a tube 161, Fig. 1, and has an inverted U connection 25 to the rudder 21, which includes an integral hinge 23. The electric motor 23, as well as driving the cam retainer 121, also drives through gearing 57, &c and a resilient coupling member 67 to the aeroplane propeller 31. Batteries 191, 193 power the motor 53 through an on-off switch 201 and are re-charged on inserting a jack plug through a hole 203.