Patent GB-444572-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to aircraft with a rotating wing system
IPC: B64C27/04
Filed: 1934-09-15
Abstract: 444,572. Aircraft with rotary-wing systems. WILKENING, F. W., Arlington Road, Penn Valley, Montgomery, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Sept. 15, 1934, No. 26566. Convention date, Sept. 20, 1933. [Class 4] In an aircraft having a rotating-wing system and an air-screw both adapted to be driven from a single power plant which provides the whole of the tractive effort and in which the speed ratio between the driven members remains constant when both members are connected to that plant, pitch varying means is associated with one or both of said members so that the proportions of the available power applied to the members are simultaneously varied inversely, the one to the other. The shaft 22 of the rotor 19 is connected through gearing 61, 62, Fig. 4, and a flexibly connected shaft 68 to gearing driven from the engine 11, Fig. 1, by a clutch 75, whilst the air-screw 77 is connected to the engine by a further clutch 78 which may include a device for changing the pitch of the blades of the airscrew. The blades of the rotor 19 are variable in pitch and are rotatably mounted in a housing 38, 39, Fig. 4, secured on the shaft 22. The blades are pivotally attached to members 40 which are connected by links 45 to a plate 46 slidably mounted on the shaft 22 and operated by a bifurcated member 49 pivoted at the top of the supporting pylon 16, 17 and connected to an operating link 53. The rotor may be tilted in two directions at right angles and to this end the shaft 22, Fig. 4, is carried in a ball member 27 mounted in a spherical socket formed in two parts 23, 24 and a pin 35, secured to the housing, engages in two perpendicular grooves 36, 37 formed in the ball member 27. The tilting of the rotor shaft 22 is effected by a lever arm 96 which has a vertical arm 87, Fig. 4, mounted in a universal bearing 88, 89 and provided with a ball 94 engaging a hollow sleeve 95 secured to the shaft 22. The control of the clutch 75 and the pitch of the blades of the rotor 19 is associated with the control of the clutch 78 by links 53, 55, 57, 80, 83, 84 as shown in Fig. 1, so that with the engagement of the clutch 75, the pitch of the blades of the rotor 19 is increased, and so that when the clutch 78 is disengaged the pitch of the blades of the air-screw 77 is reduced to zero. The reverse action takes place when the clutch 78 is again engaged. In a modification, the drive to the rotor shaft includes a free-wheel clutch so that during auto-rotation of the rotor 19 the shaft 22 may overrun the engine driving shaft, the clutch 75 being omitted in this case. In a modified embodiment in which the rotor shaft is not tiltable, the torque applied to the fuselage when the power is transferred to the rotor system is automatically balanced by the rotation of wing surfaces 125, 126 through unequal angles to positions oppositely inclined to the vertical by levers 129, 130 operated by a control lever 133 which is connected to the clutch 75 and the pitch-changing devices associated with the air-screw and the rotor. The blades 20 of the rotor are pivoted for movement about horizontal and vertical axes 116, 117 respectively and the extent of the swinging is limited by cantilever abutments 118, Fig. 4, 120, 121, Fig. 3.