Floating tape head having side wings for longitudinal and azimuth play back with minimized tape wrap angle

摘要

A floating head for magnetic tape includes a longitudinal raised mesa and side wings and has a mesa major dimension less than a width of the tape without outriggers and employs a minimized tape wrap angle. The head may be rotated between operating positions for longitudinal track patterns and azimuthal track patterns. In one preferred form, the head is employed as a read-only head within a secondary head positioning mechanism included for backward compatibility within a high track density tape unit for reading longitudinal and azimuth track patterns recorded in accordance with earlier tape track standards.