Patent GB-1008551-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in aircraft
Inventor: BROADHURST ALBERT JEFFREY
IPC: B64C1/28
Filed: 1960-09-16
Abstract: 1,008,551. Aircraft. BRISTOL AIRCRAFT Ltd. Nov. 10, 1961 [Sept. 16, 1960; Nov. 14, 1960; July 6, 1961], Nos. 31967/60. 39110/60 and 24522/61. Heading B7W. An aircraft includes a windscreen- (i.e. a forwardly facing window) and a panel movable forwardly and downwardly from a first position in front of the windscreen providing the fuselage with a streamlined shape, to a second position in which it lies inside the aircraft nose and at least partly exposes the windscreen. In Fig. 5, the aircraft has a windscreen 12 and transparent side panels 13 which are always exposed. The nose 11 is hinged to the fuselage at 15, and can be lowered by an hydraulic jack 16. The panel 14 is movable along guideways 29 and 30 so as to cover the windscreen 12 and fair the fuselage, or partially expose the windscreen as shown. This is done by an hydraulic jack 20 pivoted to the nose at 22 and to the midpoint of a lever 23 at 24. One end of the lever is pivoted to the fuselage at 19, and the other end is connected by link 27 to a point 28 on the panel. After lowering of the panel, lowering of the nose by jack 16 further displaces the panel to expose the whole windscreen. In case of failure of jack 20, lost motion linkwork is provided as in Fig. 8. An arm 25 secured to lever 24 of Fig. 5 engages a slot 37 in link 36 connected to one arm 32 of a bell-crank lever pivoted on the fuselage 10 at 33. The other arm 31 is connected by link 34 to pivot 35 on the nose. If jack 20 fails to lower the panel, lowering of the nose by jack 16 causes link 36 to rotate arm 25 and thus lower the panel by the mechanism of Fig. 5. Up and down locks may be, provided in the hydraulic apparatus. In Fig. 11, the nose 40 is hinged to the fuselage 41 on pivot 42, and is raised or lowered by jack 77. The movable panel 43, which in flight covers the windscreen 45, has lugs 74, 75 connected to runners 49, 50, sliding on guide tracks 47, 48 mounted in the nose so as to allow for relative thermal expansion. The panel is retractable to the position shown in broken lines by a hydraulic jack 61. Should jack 61 fail, the panel can be retracted by moving the anchoring point of the jack, which is on a runner 63 movable along guide 68 by the screw 65 of an electric jack 64. To reduce air turbulence when the panel is lowered, panels in the nose or fuselage may be pivotable inwardly about fore-and-aft axes to contact the panel(see Figs. 16 and 17, not shown). An inflatable tube seals the panel 43 to the windscreen in the normal flight position. Guide 47 is curved so that the front of the panel drops rapidly on retraction, to enable the panel to clear windscreen wipers. In Fig. 18, the nose is movable bodily. A structure 117 extends forwardly from the fuselage, and is surrounded by structure 129 of the nose. Structure 129 is supported on structure 117 by parallel swinging links 118, 119, on pivots 120, 121, the latter having an arm 123 rotatable on pivot 121 by a hydraulic jack 125. Nose up and nose down locking elements at 133 and 131, 132 are provided, being releasable by hydraulic pressure, and intermediate positions of the nose can be held by control of jack 126.