ENERGY RECOVERY APPARATUS AND METHOD

摘要

An energy recovery and storage apparatus especially well adapted for use with flight control surfaces (12) on airborne mobile platforms (15) , such as aircraft. In one form the apparatus includes a ram-like element (16) coupled to a portion of a flight control surface (12) . An accumulator (18) holds a flexible container having a compressible medium (22) contained within the flexible container. The accumulator (18) is in fluid communication with a housing of the ram-like element (16) . When the flight control surface (12) is moved from a deployed to a retracted position, the energy acting on the surface (12) is recovered and stored in the compressible medium (22) as the ram-like element forces fluid from its housing (24) into the accumulator (18) . When the flight control surface (12) is to be deployed again in a subsequent cycle, the stored energy in the compressible medium (22) is used to urge the ram-like element (16) into an extended position, thus assisting in deploying the flight control surface (12) . The various preferred embodiments all enable lower power, smaller and less expensive actuators to be used to control a flight control surface .