An aircraft having a fuselage of generally saucerlike character comprising upper and lower disc components separated by a transverse spacing; said upper component being contoured to provide an aerodynamic surface and merging into an upwardly projecting dome which comprises a portion of the pilot compartment. The maximum diameter of said upper component being substantially equivalent to three times the linear distance between the lower face of said spacing and the uppermost point of said dome. De...

An aircraft having power plant comprising a plurality of main engines arranged to produce forward propulsion of the aircraft, and a further engine which alone comprises means to provide reverse thrust for the aircraft.

The present invention relates to aircraft, and more particularly to structure and controls for aircraft adapted to take off and land in substantially the vertical direction. While not limited thereto, the preferred structure to be described in detail is of the canard type, and achieves at least the majority of control in empennage positioned forward of the main supporting surfaces and adjacent one or more rotors or propellers, or the like.

An aircraft with no separate elevators in the tail end of the fuselage and having wings arranged approximately in the middle portion of the fuselage, is improved by a single flap on the underside of the wings for extending down to a variable degree and being arranged at a point between 49 and 54% of the local chord depth as measured from the leading edge.

An aircraft with good noise characteristics has a number of rear-mounted engines which are arranged to suck boundary layer air from the top of the fuselage to convert the latter in its entirety to a lifting body. The tail of the aircraft acts as a noise shield.

In abstract, a preferred embodiment of this invention is an aircraft design capable of being built by amateurs in stages as time and money become available while at the same time being readily adaptable for assembly line production. This aircraft uses a new concept of designing the upper portion of the fuselage to conform to the shape of the plane formed at the junction of two intersecting cylinders disposed angularly to each other. This fuselage shape in combination with a minimum flotation sys...

A disclike aircraft body is substantially a figure of revolution about a main axis and has a plurality of air ducts extending through the body in a direction parallel to said axis, the ducts being arranged in arcuate series except in the foremost and rearmost positions. Each of the ducts has individually controlled means for inducing airflow downwardly therethrough such as a fan rotating on an airflow axis parallel to the main axis or a thrust augmentor supplied with pressure gas from a common s...

A low wing jet-engined aircraft having at least one aft-mounted engine on each side of the fuselage, and an air intake duct for each engine extending forward of the engine over the wing to an intake mouth positioned adjacent to, or forward of, the wing-leading edge.

In an aircraft wing flap extending and retracting assembly, the flap is carried from a pivotal mounting on a downward extension of a main bogie that runs in a main track fixed to the trailing portion of the wing, and is additionally supported, at a position displaced in the fore-and-aft direction from the main pivot, by a support member that depends from a further pivot on the main bogie and carries a runner travelling along a incidence control track. Both the main and incidence control tracks a...

A blown flap on an aircraft receives its forced air/gas flow as unducted efflux from a power plant/ejector system mounted under the wing. The system comprises a number of gas turbine engines, which may be short-term rated engines, each disposed with its axis fore-and-aft housed in a streamlined pod having side doors for primary and secondary intake air and for discharging the efflux spanwise. A bullet or spreader body promotes departure of the efflux through the discharge doors and also provides...