Patent ID: 7581381

Claim:
A ducted air power plant comprising: a motor-driven fan for producing a high-pressure air stream; air splitter means for deriving a plurality of subsidiary air streams from the high-pressure air stream; a plurality of vectoring air-jet nozzles; and means for ducted delivery of the subsidiary air streams to respective ones of the vectoring air-jet nozzles; the air splitter means comprises selectively-adjustable splitter means for splitting the high-pressure air-stream proportionally between the subsidiary air streams, the selectively-adjustable splitter means being selectively adjustable to vary the proportions with which the high-pressure air stream is split between the respective subsidiary air streams; the selectively-adjustable splitter means comprises a splitter plate, the splitter plate defining first and second duct-entry openings for receiving individual ones of the subsidiary air streams, a control-blade device mounted for angular displacement relative to the first and second duct-entry openings, and means for selectively adjusting the angular displacement of the control-blade device for varying the proportions by which air of the high-pressure air-stream is split between the first and second duct-entry openings; and the control-blade device comprises means defining a plurality of parallel passages for directing air of the high-pressure air stream into the first and second duct-entry openings in relative proportions dependent on the angular displacement of the control-blade device relative to the first and second duct-entry openings.