Ring-wing canard spin-up control mechanism

摘要

Apparatus of the present invention requires a very short spin-up wheel moment arm compared to a large wheel diameter. Such a requirement demands good wheel control during low rpm and excellent stability for high rpm in order to avoid uncontrollable wheel oscillations. Uncontrollable oscillations will prevent the wheel from either completing the spin-up cycle or it will destroy the gas bearing. Apparatus of the present invention uses a combination of a gas film bearing to control the alignment of the wheel during low rpm and a point contact configuration that uses the gyroscopic law of angular momentum to achieve wheel stability for the high rpm. The gyro law states that the angular momentum vector will precess into the torque vector. The spin-up control mechanism can be used to control and maintain stability of any wheel that has a large OD to small spin-up moment arm ratio requirement. An advantage of the structure of the present invention is that it utilizes the available angular momentum energy to capture and maintain wheel stability during the spin-up cycle. The higher the wheel rpm is, the better the control.