摘要 |
There is described a rotary wing aircraft comprising a fuselage (5), a main rotor (3) rotatable e in a main rotor plane relative to the fuselage for supporting the aircraft in flight, and a plurality of control thrusters (7) each operable to provide a thrust force acting in a tangential direction relative to the main rotor and in a plane parallel to and spaced from the main rotor plane. The plurality of control thrusters may comprise a pair of oppositely directed thrusters, the pair being mounted for selective rotation relative to the fuselage about the main rotor axis. Alternatively and preferably, the plurality of thrusters may comprise three or more thrusters spaced in the circumferential direction of the main rotor. There is also described a tilt-rotor aircraft in which such an array of thrusters is provided for lateral control in hovering flight, and directional control in forward flight.
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