ROTARY WING VTOL WITH FIXED WING FORWARD FLIGHT MODE

摘要

An aircraft's two wings and joined thruster propellers or turbines serve as rotary wings in helicopter mode and as fixed wings in airplane mode. The thrusters along the wingspans or at the wing tips drive both rotary wing rotation and airplane flight. Large-angle controlled feathering about the pitch change axes of the left and right wings and thrusters allows them to rotate, relative to each other, between facing and thrusting forward in the same direction for airplane flight or facing and thrusting oppositely for helicopter flight. Optional controls include: helicopter cyclic and collective pitch; airplane roll by differential wing pitch; yaw by differential prop thrust; fuselage pitch by wing pitch change and prop thrust change interacting with an underslung craft e.g.; and fuselage yaw control independent of rotor rotation via a powered rotary mast coupling or a tail responsive to rotor downwash. A teetering rotor hub is a further option.