JPH0433660B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] This invention relates to an airplane that flies at an extremely low altitude above the water surface.

[Prior Art] The expansion and revitalization of transportation in recent years is expected to continue further in the future. Under these circumstances, in an environment like Japan, which is surrounded by ocean on all sides and dotted with many islands, the need for medium- to short-distance transportation, especially at sea, is by no means small, and will attract attention in the future. It can be said to be a direction.

At present, the possible means of transportation are ships (hovercraft, hydrofoils) and airplanes.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, when using a ship, there are problems in that it takes too much time to transport and the sea life is also poor.
In addition, although airplanes can shorten transportation time, they have problems with equipment such as runways and high fuel costs, which increases transportation costs. In recent years, as a solution to these problems, PAR (Power Augmented
Several ideas have been proposed for surface planes using a system called Ram Wing.
This allows it to fly at extremely low altitudes above the water surface using ground effects.

However, at present, it has not reached the practical stage, and various issues remain to be solved. Among these, obtaining sufficient ground effect even in stationary conditions and at low speeds is an issue that needs to be resolved as soon as possible.

In addition, for aircraft that fly at extremely low altitudes like this, there is a high risk that the wing tips will come into contact with the water surface, especially in bad weather with high sea waves, and if the aircraft is hit by such a water wave shock, the flight may be suspended. will have a serious impact.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above technical problem.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In the above configuration, the present invention provides a configuration in which the chord length can be increased by making it possible to extend the flap toward at least one side of the front or rear of the main wing having the wing end plate. Moreover, the flap is made of a flexible member that can be expanded and contracted.

In addition, the wing end plate provided at the end of the wing is attached via a shock absorber or other shock mitigation mechanism to alleviate water wave shock. Further, the wing end plate may be detachably attached, and in this case, a configuration may be adopted in which a shock relaxation mechanism and a detachable structure are used together.

[Operation] When the aircraft is stationary or at low speed, the flaps are extended to increase the chord length of the main wing, thereby expanding the wing area. This makes it possible to use ground effects to increase aerodynamic lift, resulting in a smooth transition from standstill to cruising.

Furthermore, since the wing end plate is attached via a shock absorber or other shock absorbing mechanism, even if the wing tip receives a sudden wave, it is well absorbed.
Also, if the wing end plate is made detachable, it will be effective in case of receiving a large water wave shock.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example embodying the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a plan view of this example seaplane. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a central body, and a turbo fan 2 for propulsion is attached to an upper rear position of the central body so as to be rotatable in a horizontal plane. Further, a pair of tailed propellers 4 are arranged on the left and right sides of the front wing 3. Both propellers 4 are held in a substantially vertical position during cruising, and are freely tiltable so as to take a slightly backward tilted position from a stationary state to a hump speed. By doing this, the trailing propeller is brought into contact with the water surface and a portion of it is caused to flow under the main wing 5.

The main wing 5 is divided into an inner wing part 5a and an outer wing part 5b with a side body 6 serving as an auxiliary float as the boundary. A movable frame 7 connected to a drive mechanism (not shown) is provided at the leading edge and a trailing edge of the inner wing portion 5a, respectively, and both ends thereof are connected to rails (not shown) provided on the side fuselage 6 and the center fuselage 1. It is possible to move forward or backward over a predetermined range along the line.

Next, the expansion of the canvas for enlarging the area of the inner wing section will be explained, and there are two types of mechanisms for this purpose: a horizontal movement type described below, and a front and rear movement type described later.

First, in the case where the canvas moves laterally, canvas rails 8a and 8b are provided on opposing surfaces of both movable frames 7 and the main wings 5, respectively. A flexible cloth canvas 9 is housed inside the body 6 on both sides. Each of them is connected to another drive mechanism (not shown),
While being guided by the canvas rails 8a and 8b, it can be rolled out toward the main wing 5 side and rolled up. Also, canvas 9
A suitable number of small bones 10 are inserted in the front and back direction for reinforcement.

In the case of this example, the chord length of the inner wing portion 5a is set to be approximately three times as long when the flap is stretched.

On the other hand, a slat 11 is provided at the leading edge of the outer wing portion 5b.
A flapperon 12 is attached to each trailing edge.

Next, the water wave shock mitigation mechanism of the outer wing tip plate will be described.

A wing end plate 13 is removably attached to the outer end of the outer wing portion 5b. That is, a fitting groove 14 is recessed in the end surface of the outer wing portion 5b along the front-rear direction. On the other hand, a projecting piece 15 that can be tightly fitted into the fitting groove 14 is formed on the opposing surface of the wing end plate 13 .
Furthermore, this wing end plate 13 is connected via a connecting piece 17 to a shock absorber 16 fixed to the upper surface of the outer wing portion 5b. When an external force within a certain value (impact force due to a wave crest) is applied to the wing end plate 13 in the horizontal direction, it is absorbed within the stroke of the shock absorber 16. However, if the impact force at that time exceeds a certain value, such as when the wing end plate 13 comes into contact with a wave crest, the connecting piece 17 breaks and is separated from the shock absorber 6, and only the wing end plate 13 is separated. That's what I do. By doing so, the impact force when the wing end plate 13 comes into contact with the wave crest is not sustained, so that it is possible to avoid receiving a fatal yawing moment.

This example was formed as described above.

Therefore, in a low speed state or a stationary state, a drive mechanism (not shown) is operated to move each movable frame 7 forward and backward. Then, the canvas 9 is fed out by another drive mechanism (not shown) and stretched toward the main wing 5 side along the canvas rails 8a, 8b. By doing this,
The chord length of the inner wing portion 5a increases approximately three times, and the wing area increases. In this state, when the propeller 4 is tilted to guide the propeller wake below the main wing 5, the canvas 9 receives air pressure from below due to the ground effect, and takes on a shape that bulges upward ( (See Figure 4). Therefore, high lift can be obtained even at low speed.

Note that while cruising, the flaps are in a retracted state.

On the other hand, when the wing end plate 13 comes into contact with the wave crest, if the impact force at that time is above a certain value, only the wing end plate 13 is abandoned, as described above, and an accident can be avoided. That is, although the wing end plate makes the aerodynamic force due to the ground effect extremely effective, it is dangerous when exposed to water wave shock. This example can significantly alleviate this problem.

7 to 9 show modified examples (back and forth movable type) in which the flap is extended.

In this example, the flaps extend directly forward and rearward from the main wing 5. That is, canvas reels 18 are provided at the leading edge and the trailing edge of the main wing 5, respectively, and the canvas 9 is wound onto these reels while being biased in the winding direction. The tip of the canvas 9 is tied to the inner edges of both movable frames.

FIG. 9 shows a mechanism for moving both ends of both movable frames 7 equally in the front and back direction.

According to the figure, driving rollers 19a and 19b are provided on the central cylinder 1 side corresponding to both movable frames 7, and the cable 20 is wound up and fed out by driving a motor (not shown). I can do it. And the cable 20 that was fed out from here
is branched in two directions and tied to both left and right ends of the movable frame 7.

In this example, the chord length with the flaps stretched is approximately three times as long as in the above-mentioned example.

In this example, when tensioning the flap, both drive rollers 19a and 19b are rotated counterclockwise as shown in FIG. Then, both movable frames 7 are moved back and forth via the cables 20, and the canvas 9 is stretched. Conversely, when the canvas 9 can be retracted, if the drive rollers 19a and 19b are reversed, as described above, the canvas 9 is biased by the spring (not shown) of the canvas reel 18. , the cable 20 is wound up in tension.

In this method of moving the flaps, since the canvas 9 is built into the main wing 5, the side fuselage 6 can be made thinner than in the case where it is housed in the side fuselage 6.

[Effect of the invention] The effects of the present invention are as follows.

Since the flaps can be moved forward and backward to expand the wing area, it is possible to enhance the effect of the other side when stationary or at low speeds, increasing high lift even further.
Therefore, the installed horsepower can be significantly reduced by increasing the high lift when the vehicle is stationary and at low speed.

Furthermore, since the flap is formed of a flexible member that can be expanded and contracted, the flap can be compactly stored in the main wing or the like.

Since the wing end plate is linked to a water wave shock mitigation mechanism such as a shock absorber, even if a strong impact force is applied to the wing end plate, the shock exerted on the entire fuselage is significantly alleviated. Furthermore, since the wing end plates are designed to be detachable, if the impact force exceeds a certain limit, the wing end plates will separate, contributing to safe navigation. Here, it will be more effective to use a shock absorber or other shock-relieving mechanism in combination with a separation structure. This makes it possible to have a wing with a higher aspect ratio compared to a wing end plate that does not have a water wave shock mitigation mechanism or a separation structure, which in turn makes it possible to achieve higher lift.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a plan view of this example airplane, Figure 2 is a side view of the same, Figure 3 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the main wing, Figure 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the flap extended state, and Figure 5 is the wing tip. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing the fitted state of the wing end plate, FIGS. 7 to 9 each show examples of changes to the mechanism for extending the flap, and FIG. A vertical cross-sectional view of the main wing, FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing the flap extended state, FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing the mechanism for moving the movable frame,
FIG. 10 is a plan view showing the connection structure of the wing end plates. 5... Main wing, 6... Side body, 7... Movable frame, 9... Canvas, 13... Wing end plate.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A seaplane of a type that can fly by utilizing ground effect, in which a flap can be extended to at least one side of the front or rear of a main wing having a wing end plate, so that the chord of the wing can be adjusted. What is claimed is: 1. A seaplane, characterized in that the length can be increased, and the flap is formed of a flexible member that can be expanded and contracted. 2. A surface plane capable of flying by utilizing ground effect, with a configuration in which the chord length can be increased by making it possible to extend a flap to at least one side of the front or rear of the main wing having an end plate. A seaplane, characterized in that the wing end plate is attached via a shock mitigation mechanism such as a shock absorber to alleviate water wave shock. 3. A surface plane capable of flying using ground effect, with a configuration capable of increasing the chord length by making it possible to extend a flap to at least one side of the front or rear of the main wing having an end plate. A seaplane, characterized in that the wing end plate is attached so as to be detachable when the wing end plate receives a water wave shock.