Tailplane

Abstract: A vertical take-off and landing aircraft having a wing fitted, in the preferred embodiment, with two nacelles one port and one starboard, each nacelle having two tiltmotors in tandem, one forward and one aft of the wing A conventional rudder and high set tailplane is fitted or, in another embodiment forward canards or in yet another embodiment the aircraft is a flying wing Forward tiltmotors can be tilted up past the vertical and the aft pusher tiltmotors can be tilted down past the vertical so that the aircraft can maintain a steep descent with the propeller discs horizontal and a low angle of attack of the wing Each engine is fitted with a two bladed variable pitch propeller that feathers to stop vertically, other embodiments have cyclic pitch propellers The tiltmotors, have a sideways cant in the tilted positions to reduce engine side loads in translation All the tiltmotors are equipped with emergency electric motors that can be used to shift the center of lift in hover and assist in gust control A small wing is provided with very large flaps that are moved in synchronization with the tiltmotors to allow a clear downdraft and also act as a dive brake A tricycle undercarriage has long nacelle legs to provide ground clearance for the aft propellers and is equipped with side-load sensors for weathercock control An auto-pilot controls all phases of flight and has a manual back-up control system Special programs control weathercock effects on landing and take-off, and operation of the emergency electric motors

Abstract: A triple mode aircraft which can take off as a helicopter, or in gyrocopter mode with no power to the rotors or as a conventional aircraft obtaining lift from a circular wing and in another embodiment from short stub wings; a canard wing and high lift tailplane. So it combines the flexibility of a helicopter with the same efficiency and safety of a gyrocopter and a fixed wing aircraft, also has the same simplicity and efficiency of flying a helicopter that doesn't have a tail rotor to worry about. The rotor craft includes two counter-rotating rotors with weighted tips on one set of rotors or a circular airfoil (CA) attached to at least one set of rotors. This CA gives the lift to function as a conventional aircraft, it also weights the tips of the rotor to give a gyro-stabilizing effect to the whole aircraft. Also there is a down draft rudder that functions as a rudder in horizontal flight or catches the down draft from the rotors for directional control. There is a conventional horizontal tail with elevator controls which can be differentially operated for additional control.