2507results about "Undercarriages" patented technology

The present invention relates to an unmanned flying vehicle using a PCB including a main board controlling power supply and flying operation, a motor rotating a propeller by changing electric energy into mechanical energy, a PCB frame changing a signal from a remote controller and connecting the main board with the motor, a propeller generating an impellent force by from rotation by the motor, a receiver receiving a control signal of the remote controller, and a remote controller controlling a motor rotation speed of a quadrotor and direction change, and accordingly, the structure of the unmanned flying vehicle can be simplified so that the flying vehicle can be down-sized and light-weighted, and assemblability can be improved.

The present invention provides methods and apparatus for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with improved reliability. According to one aspect of the invention, interference experienced by onboard sensors from onboard electrical components is reduced. According to another aspect of the invention, user-configuration or assembly of electrical components is minimized to reduce user errors.

A vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) rotary-wing air-craft is sized and configured to match a payload container such as a standardized Joint Modular Intermodal Container (JMIC). The aircraft may be an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) that is capable of autonomously engaging and disengaging the container so that the aircraft can pick up and drop off the JMIC with minimum human intervention.

A drone cargo helicopter having an elongated body. The elongated body has a low profile and has a front portion, a rear portion, an upper surface, a lower surface and a pair of opposing sides extending between the front and the rear portions. At least a first blade set is coupled to the upper surface and rotating in a first direction. Two or more struts are pivotally coupled to opposing sides or lower surface of the elongated body, the struts being coupled via a joint at a top end of the strut. The lower surface of the elongated body comprises a substantially planar surface between the front and rear portions, the substantially planar surface having one or more attachments to provide a rigid engagement with a container. The struts are pivotally movable between a first position and a second position, wherein in the first position, the struts support the elongated body a distance from a ground surface that is greater than a height of the container.

A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft according to an aspect of the present invention comprises a fuselage, an empennage having an all-moving horizontal stabilizer located at a tail end of the fuselage, a wing having the fuselage positioned approximately halfway between the distal ends of the wing, wherein the wing is configured to transform between a substantially straight wing configuration and a canted wing configuration using a canted hinge located on each side of the fuselage. The VTOL aircraft may further includes one or more retractable pogo supports, wherein a retractable pogo support is configured to deploy from each of the wing's distal ends.

An aerial vehicle capable of convertible flight from hover to linear flight includes a body having a longitudinal body axis, a plurality of forward wings, a plurality of aft wings, at least one motor, and at least three aerodynamic propulsors driven by the at least one motor. Each forward wing extends a forward wing plane. Each aft wing extends from an aft wing plane. The aerodynamic propulsors are mounted longitudinally between the plurality of forward wings and plurality of aft wings.

A shock strut for an aircraft landing gear having a retract actuator that is moveable in length to deploy or retract the landing gear, that includes a shrink strut and a transfer device. The shrink strut may be compressed in length for stowage in the fuselage. The transfer device may be in closed fluid communication with the strut shrink for transferring and receiving hydraulic fluid to and from the strut shrink. When actuated by an aircraft hydraulic or electric system independent of any motion of the retract actuator, the transfer device may drive hydraulic fluid to the strut shrink thereby compressing or shrinking the shrink strut to a partially compressed length.

The invention relates to an unmanned aerial vehicle which can vertically take off and land and hover in the air and has higher flight speed and larger flying range. The unmanned aerial vehicle does not need running take-off, thereby reducing the requirement on a taking off and landing field and greatly expanding the application range, and the unmanned aerial vehicle has higher speed and further flaying range than a manned helicopter. The unmanned aerial vehicle comprises a body (1), wings (8), a horizontal empennage (2), a vertical empennage (5), a nose power cabin (15) arranged on the front part of the body (1), a propeller power system (12) arranged on the front part of the nose power cabin (15) and a tilting mechanism (16) arranged on the middle upper part of the body, wherein the nosepower cabin (15) is connected with the body in a titling mode through the tilting mechanism (16) so as to ensure that the axial directions of the propellers (121) and (122) of the propeller power system (12) can be correspondingly titled.

A system for use in monitoring, measuring, computing and displaying the Kinetic Energy generated and experienced while aircraft are executing either normal, overweight or hard landing events. Pressure sensors and motion sensors are mounted in relation to each of the landing gear struts to monitor, measure and record the impact loads and aircraft touch-down vertical velocities experienced by landing gear struts, as the aircraft landing gear initially comes into contact with the ground. Velocity adjustments are made to correct for errors caused by landing gear per-charge pressure and landing gear strut seal friction. The system also measures the landing loads experienced by each landing gear strut during the landing event and determines if aircraft limitations have been exceeded.

A deformation structure of an air vehicle. The deformation structure includes: a driving part, a transmission part which is fixedly connected to the driving part, is driven by the driving part, and linearly moves back and forth relative to the driving part, a fixing part which sleeves the transmission part, at least two main rods which are respectively disposed on the two sides of the transmission part, wherein each main rod includes a first bottom part and an opposite first tail part, and the first bottom parts of the at least two main rods are hinged to each other and are limited to one end of the fixing part, wherein the end of the fixing part is in proximity to the driving part, at least two auxiliary rods, wherein each auxiliary rod includes a second bottom part and an opposite second tail part, and the two second bottom parts of the at least two auxiliary rods are hinged to each other and are limited to one end of the fixing part, wherein the end of the fixing part is far away from the driving part, at least two pull rods, wherein one end of each pull rod is connected to the first tail part of one of the main rods and the other end of each pull rod is connected to the second tail part of one of the auxiliary rods, and at least two connecting rods, wherein one end of each connecting rod is hinged to the transmission part and the other end of each connecting rod is hinged to the main rod. The invention also provides a micro air vehicle.

An aircraft landing assist apparatus is designed to be retrofit to existing aircraft having internal constructions that have been modified to support the apparatus. The apparatus is designed so that on rough landings of the aircraft on a ship deck, the apparatus will collapse in a controlled manner to avoid any damage to ammunition and / or fuel storage areas of the aircraft.

A multi-mode unmanned aerial vehicle includes an elongated fuselage, a right and left fixed wing extending from a respective right and left side of the elongated fuselage, a right and left tilt wing attached at a first side to a free end of the respective right and left fixed wing, a right and left duct attached to a second side of the respective right and left tilt wing, a right and left winglet attached to the respective right and left duct opposite to the right and left tilt wing, a tilt tail located within a curved guide slot at a rear end of the elongated fuselage, a rear duct attached to the tilt tail, a tilting mechanism, and an integrated autonomous flight control system.

This invention relates to a hard landing indication system that will provide a quantitative assessment that a hard landing did or did not occur at the last landing of an airplane. A hard landing can cause structural damage to an airplane. An airplane that has been declared to have a hard landing must be grounded until an inspection of the structure has been made to determine if repairs are required.

The invention provides a mechanical part for hinging to other mechanical parts at its ends, the mechanical part being made at least in part out of composite material from a central fiber preform and a peripheral fiber preform both of three-dimensional woven fabric, which preforms are assembled together while dry and then impregnated with resin, the peripheral preform surrounding the central preform in such a manner as to leave two empty spaces at the ends of the part and between the two preforms, which spaces are dedicated to hinging to said other parts. Metal inserts can be received in said spaces. The mechanical part can be used as a lever for a landing gear brace.

A woven fibrous structure embodied in one piece, used for producing a composite material part and comprising an internal part or a core (72) and a part adjacent to the external surface thereof or a skin (74, 76), is formed by three-dimensional core weaving with at least one weave selected from interlock and multilayer weaves and by skin weaving with a weave which differs from the core weave and selected from a multilayer weave and a two-dimensional weave. It can be also formed by three-dimensional weaving with at least one core interlock weave (72) and weaving with a fabric-, satin or skin twill-type weave, wherein skin weaving is of a multilayer or two-dimensional type.

The invention discloses a portable six-rotor-wing aircraft used for bridge detection, and relates to the field of unmanned aerial vehicles. The portable six-rotor-wing aircraft comprises an aircraft body, six foldable aircraft arm assemblies, a looking-up camera tripod head, a two-axis laser tripod head, an ultrasonic obstacle avoiding device and a retractable landing gear, wherein each foldable aircraft arm assembly is composed of a motor, a paddle, a collision preventing structure, an aircraft arm and a foldable structure. In order to achieve the purpose of bridge detection, the looking-up camera tripod head is developed and designed to be used for photographing flaw information of a bridge bottom face and bridge piers; the laser scanning range finder tripod head is designed and used for scanning bridge bottom two-dimensional features and positioning the aircraft in the bridge bottom non-GPS environment; the ultrasonic obstacle avoiding device is designed and used for avoiding obstacles for the aircraft under complex environments; the foldable aircraft arm assemblies can be folded and unfolded conveniently and quickly, so that the problem that a large-size unmanned aerial vehicle is not convenient to carry is effectively solved.

The invention relates to a system architecture for managing aircraft landing gear and suitable for extending / retracting retractable undercarriages, steering steerable wheels, and braking braked wheels. According to the invention, the architecture comprises a communications network having connected thereto extension / retraction actuators, steering actuators, and braking actuators, together with one or more control units adapted to control all of the actuators connected thereto, the communications network having transmission characteristics that are adapted to enabling the control unit(s) to implement antilock servo-control for controlling the braking actuators.

A system for use in monitoring, measuring, computing and displaying the landing loads experienced while aircraft are executing either normal, overweight or hard landing events. Pressure sensors and motion sensors are mounted in relation to each of the landing gear struts to monitor, measure and record the impact loads and aircraft sink rates; experienced by landing gear struts, as the aircraft landing gear initially come into contact with the ground. The computer of this system measures the landing loads experienced by each landing gear strut and determines if a hard landing event has occurred. Additional features include automating the inspections required to aircraft components, after overweight or hard landing events.

An extremely large aircraft which is suitable for overseas cargo transport and which includes a fuselage defining a central storage cavity, a wing assembly defining a pair of wing storage cavities, an altitude control system, and a plurality of independently steerable landing gear units. The central storage cavity has a length, height and width of at least 100 feet, at least 16 feet and at least 24 feet, respectively. The wing assembly has a wingspan of at least 300 feet and is configured with a moderate aspect ratio to permit both ground-effect and high altitude operation. The altitude control system controls the aircraft in ground effect such that the aircraft is maintained at about a predetermined altitude. The landing gear units are coupled to the fuselage and are arranged in at least two discrete columns and at least ten discrete rows. The central storage cavity and the wing storage cavities are configured to receive cargo including intermodal re-usable cargo containers.

An aircraft includes a fuselage; a cockpit formed in the fuselage; a coaxial rotor assembly mounted to the top of fuselage, containing an upper rotor and a lower rotor, drivable by a first motor inside the fuselage; wherein, the aircraft also comprises: a couple of fixed wings mounted to the opposite sides of the aircraft respectively; and a rear propeller mounted to the tail end of fuselage, driven by a second motor inside the fuselage. The aircraft of the invention has the advantages of helicopter and autogyro, such as high-safety and high-speed.

A flight-operable, truly modular aircraft has an aircraft core to which one or more of outer wings members, fuselage, cockpit, leading and trailing edge couplings, and empennage and tail sections can be removably coupled and / or replaced during the operating life span of the aircraft. In preferred embodiments the aircraft core houses the propulsive engines, avionics, at least 80% of the fuel, and all of the landing gear. The aircraft core is preferably constructed with curved forward and aft composite spars, that transfer loads across the center section, while accommodating a mid-wing configuration. The aircraft core preferably has a large central cavity dimensioned to interchangeably carry an ordnance launcher, a surveillance payload, electronic countermeasures, and other types of cargo. Contemplated aircraft can be quite large, for example having a wing span of at least 80 ft.

A rotatable thruster aircraft includes a fixed wing; rotatable thruster assemblies, each including first and second thrusters that provide rotation via differential thrust; and vertical lift thrusters, optionally connected via an elongated member; and an aircraft control unit, including a processor, a non-transitory memory, an input / output component, and a power manager that controls specific power applied to the thrusters.

A flight-operable, truly modular aircraft has an aircraft core to which one or more of outer wings members, fuselage, cockpit, leading and trailing edge couplings, and empennage and tail sections can be removably coupled and / or replaced during the operating life span of the aircraft. In preferred embodiments the aircraft core houses the propulsive engines, avionics, at least 80% of the fuel, and all of the landing gear. The aircraft core is preferably constructed with curved forward and aft composite spars, that couple to outer wing sections and possibly other sections using hardpoints. The aircraft core preferably has a large central cavity dimensioned to interchangeably carry an ordnance launcher, a surveillance payload, electronic countermeasures, and other types of cargo. Contemplated aircraft can be quite large, for example having a wing span of at least 80 ft.

The invention discloses an unmanned plane which belongs to the technical field of aircrafts. The unmanned plane comprises: a fuselage, two propellers disposed at the nose, two propellers arranged at the tail, a power unit for providing power to the propellers, a power supply which is electrically connected with the power unit, and a plurality of undercarriage arms arranged at two sides of the fuselage. Each undercarriage arm is respectively connected with the fuselage through an electric folding mechanism, and each undercarriage arm is provided with at least two wheels. The two propellers arranged at the tail are connected with the fuselage through a rotatable transverse shaft. The undercarriage of the unmanned plane also comprises a motor used for providing power to the rotatable transverse shaft and a control device used for controlling the electric folding mechanism to fold and controlling the motor to adjust the two propellers arranged at the tail to be in the horizontal or vertical direction. Through the above technical scheme, the undercarriage of the unmanned plane is retractable, and the unmanned plane can run on the ground.

A telescoping landing leg system includes an aerial vehicle capable of vertical takeoff and landing; and a plurality of legs. Each leg has at least two nested sections. A first section is fixed to the aerial vehicle and a second section slidably retained within the first section. The second section extends out of the first section by telescoping therefrom to engage the ground when the aerial vehicle is landing. A central processing unit may be used to control extension of any leg independently of any other leg in the plurality of legs. Sensors may be used to provide data to the central processing unit.

A landing gear system includes a shock strut assembly and a linkage member coupled to an aircraft. Preferably, the shock strut assembly and linkage member are oriented or angled relative to one another in a non-parallel relationship. Actuation of the linkage member moves the shock strut from a de-hiked to a hiked configuration or vice-versa. In addition, the orientation of the linkage member relative to the shock strut assembly permits it to automatically move the shock strut assembly to the de-hiked position during retraction of the landing gear system and prevents the shock strut assembly from exceeding a desired length during retraction. The linkage member may take the form of a hydraulic actuator having a lower end portion coupled to an inner cylinder of the shock strut assembly and an upper end portion coupled to the aircraft aft of where the shock strut assembly is coupled to the aircraft.

The invention relates to a new method and system for health monitoring of aircraft landing gear. The system includes sensors that are attached to the landing gear structure and equipment (e.g., one or more of brakes, tires, hydraulics, electrical systems and switches) and analyzed to report and alert personnel such as pilots, maintenance personnel, airline operators, ground crew and regulatory authorities of the health of the landing gear and the potential need for service, maintenance or replacement. The system monitors and reports critical health issues as real-time information which can be analyzed in conjunction with an extensive database of information and used to alert pilots or other relevant personnel to the condition of the landing gear and actions that may be required as a result.

A structural element for use in aerospace applications such as a structural element suitable as an aircraft component is described. In one embodiment of the invention, the composite structure comprises: (a) at least one member having an inner surface and an outer surface; (b) a rib having a first end and a second end; (c) a rib-receiving member integral to the inner surface of the at least one member, wherein the rib-receiving member comprises a plurality of rib-receiving elements and openings therein for receiving the first end of the rib and at least one cover sheet having an opening therein for receiving the first end of the rib; and (d) at least one anchoring element interconnecting the rib-receiving elements. In another embodiment of the invention, the composite structure comprises: (a) at least one member having an inner surface and an outer surface; (b) a rib having a first end and a second end; and (c) a rib-receiving member integral to the inner surface of the at least one member, wherein the rib-receiving member comprises a rib-receiving sleeve having an open end for receiving the rib and a closed end, and two sleeve support members, wherein the sleeve support members are disposed on opposite sides of the sleeve and interconnect the sleeve to the inner face of the at least one member.