Patent ID: 6896221

Claim:
A vertical takeoff and landing aircraft comprising: a fuselage for carrying passengers and/or cargo, a tail assembly at the rear end of the fuselage, a movable wing assembly including a wing pivotally mounted at each side of the fuselage and positionable between substantially horizontal and substantially vertical positions for respectively conditioning the aircraft for horizontal and vertical flight modes, an engine carried by each wing assembly, each said engine having a propeller with blades, flaps at the trailing edges of the wings movable between an inline position as an extension of the wings for producing substantially horizontal flight mode and at an incline to the wings when the wings are in a substantially vertical position to direct air flow from the propeller substantially vertically downward for the substantially vertical flight mode, and each wing assembly including a tail assembly extending rearwardly therefrom, the configuration of the aircraft as to the position of the engines, the length of the propeller blades, and the position of the wing assemblies being such that when the wings are in the substantial horizontal position, the tips of the blades are spaced above the ground thereby allowing the aircraft to land or take off along a runway, whereby positioning the wing assemblies into substantially vertical position and the flaps into substantially vertical position orients the aircraft in vertical takeoff/landing mode, and positioning the wing assemblies into substantially horizontal position and the flaps at inline positions orients the aircraft in the horizontal flying/landing mode.