A linear-type tape transport includes a pair of air bearings on each side of a transducer when viewed in reference to the tape transport direction. Each air bearing includes a housing and a bear member formed of a porous material. The housing and the bearing member form a plenum connectable to a pressurized air source such that air flow through the porous material creates an air cushion to support a tape medium during transport. The porous material is preferably a ceramic that is between two and fifty percent open. The bearing member has a datum face with the bearing surface thereof being planar and at a small obtuse angle to the datum face thereby to automatically urge an edge of the tape against the datum face. The housing is preferably U-shaped in cross-section with an arcuate bottom and parallel sidewalls.

A rotating head magnetic tape transport wherein a helical wrap of flexible magnetic tape is formed about a stationary tubular mandrel and a rotatable headwheel which carries a slotted head of generally spherical flying contour. This rotating head includes a generally spherical surface profile to insure that the head flies with close microinch adjacency to a length of magnetic recording tape. The head's spherical profile includes two parallel airflow slots which extend in the direction of head movement. A uniform, stable, hydrodynamic air film is developed over a relatively large area, generally centered on the head's transducing gap.

A tape scanning assembly including a fixed drum and a coaxially mounted rotating drum defining a gap therebetween, with the tape wrapped in a helical path around the drums and across the gap, the rotating drum being driven to produce a pressurized gas bearing film between the tape and drums, with the bearing film being vented by the gap to tend to produce a variable film thickness gradient on the upstream side of the gap; the assembly is provided with venting means such as relieved portions or grooves on the rotating drum to reduce said gradient and to control the film thickness upstream from the gap.

Various pneumatic means are shown for lifting tape locally away from a rotating head as the rotating head moves. Only the tape in the vicinity of the head is lifted. The lifting is done with minimal pneumatic force, and done only locally about the head so that recovery time for read/write operations after a lifting operation is short, Air to lift the tape can be blown from passages around the head, from passages through the head, or from passages in front of the head. Local lifting about the head is enhanced by insuring that the pneumatic air flow to lift the tape does not easily dissipate in air space between the mandrel and the head rotor.

A rotating head magnetic tape recording apparatus wherein a helical wrap of magnetic recording tape is formed about a cylindrical mandrel and the headwheel. The headwheel is of a larger radius than the mandrel; thus the headwheel protrudes or penetrates beyond the adjacent mandrel surfaces. This headwheel penetration operates to (1) compensate for mandrel misalignment, if any, and (2) stress the tape in the localized track coincident with the headwheel's path. A magnetic head is mounted on the headwheel to protrude or penetrate radially outward therefrom. The head includes a surface profile causing; th head to fly relative to the tape's recording surface, i.e., a thin air film surrounds the head. The combination of the protruding headwheel and the protruding head produces a stable recording platform at the tape/head interface. The headwheel produces localized tape stress coincident with the headwheel's path. The head produces a moving tent of additional localized tape stress at the tape/head interface.