Patent ID: 7584924

Claim:
A high-speed vertical take-off and land aircraft, comprising: a body; an engine supported by said body; a fan assembly carried by said body, said fan assembly including a hub and a plurality of blades to provide vertical lift for said aircraft; a nozzle ring on said fan assembly providing an annular nozzle array for ejecting hot exhaust gases at a temperature from said engine; a feed duct receiving said hot exhaust gases from said engine and directing said hot exhaust gases to said annular nozzle array; an interface between said feed duct and said annular nozzle array where said hot exhaust gases have a pressure P 1 ; a bearing mechanism vertically supporting and horizontally centering said fan assembly, said bearing mechanism being carried in a work space defined between said fan assembly and said body; and a brush seal assembly thermally isolating said work space from said hot exhaust gases moving through said feed duct and said annular nozzle array; said brush seal assembly including: (a) a brush seal positioned across an entry to said work space; (b) a brush seal manifold provided between said brush seal and said interface; and (c) an air source providing pressurized air to said brush seal manifold at a pressure P 2 where P 2 is equal to or greater than P 1 so as to provide a curtain of relatively cool air between said brush seal and said hot exhaust gases whereby said work space is thermally isolated from said hot exhaust gases.