REMOTE CONTROL POWERED PARAFOIL AIRCRAFT CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This is application claims the benefit of U. S. Provisional Application No.
60/261,682, filed January 11,2001.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a televised remote-control aircraft having a propelled body suspended with lines from an air-expandable wing for un-manned agricultural spraying, dusting or analysis, military observation, photography, police surveillance, sports watching, demographic studies, industrial analysis, fire fighting and other uses with idealized speed, close control, high load capacity and ease of operation conveniently and reliably at low cost without licensing.
Remote-controlled aircraft are known and now proliferating for various surveillance and conveyance uses. None are known, however, to have televised remote operational control of a propelled body suspended with lines from an air- expandable wing having suspension-line control of aerodynamics for operational modes and on-board equipment control in a manner taught by this invention.
Examples of most-closely related known but different devices are described in the following patent documents: U. S. Patent No. Inventor Issue Date 6,119,976 Rogers 09-19-2000 5,904,724 Margolin 05-18-1999 5,899,415 Conway, et al. 05-04-1999 5,884,863 Fisher, et al. 03-23-1999 5,769,359 Rutan, et al. 06-23-1998 5,620,153 Ginsberg 04-15-1997 5,503,350 Foote 04-02-1996 5,160,100 Snyder 11-03-1992 4,601,443 Jones, et al. 07-22-1986 4,175,722 Higgins 11-27-1979
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Objects of patentable novelty and utility taught by this invention are to provide a remote-control powered parafoil aircraft which: has flight control remotely with a multi-axis joystick or similar control; has remotely televised operational control of onboard equipment selectively; can takeoff and land in short distances from ground-like surfaces and from vehicles or even other aircraft during flight; has a high load capacity per size, weight, cost and operating range; can operate at variably controllable low speeds; is highly maneuverable; can be produced in a wide range of sizes, operating ranges and load capacities; is easy to learn; does not require licensing to operate; is inexpensive ; can be fitted with a wide variety of use equipment; and can be used for a wide variety of applications that include agricultural spraying, agricultural dusting, agricultural-crop analysis, animal herding, police surveillance, photography, sports surveillance, population studies, advertising, mapping, surveying, border patrol, mineral and oil prospecting, search and rescue, and military surveillance.
This invention accomplishes these objectives with a remote-control powered parafoil aircraft having an aircraft body that is engine powered and hung with lines from an air-expandable wing. The lines include control lines with which air flow and aerodynamic shape of the air-expandable wing are variable selectively from a foil controller on the aircraft body for flight-mode control.
Sight from a television camera on the aircraft body is televised to a control unit from which control data is transmitted selectively from proximate the control unit to the foil controller with a multi-axis joystick or similar control, to an engine on the aircraft body from an engine controller and to equipment controls on the aircraft body from an equipment controller.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention should become even more readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with the drawings wherein there is shown and described illustrative embodiments of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS This invention is described by appended claims in relation to description of a preferred embodiment with reference to the following drawings which are explained briefly as follows: FIG. 1 is a front elevation view of a remote-control powered parafoil aircraft having a propeller thruster on an aircraft body suspended by lines from a parafoil wing that is ram-air inflated and is remotely controlled from a remote- control unit for dispensing crop-protection substance from a tank;
FIG. 2 is a side view of the FIG. 1 illustration; FIG. 3 is a front elevation view of a remote-control powered parafoil aircraft having a propeller thruster on an aircraft body suspended by lines from a parafoil wing that is compressed-air inflated and is remotely controlled from a remote-control unit for dispensing crop-protection substance from a tank; FIG. 4 is a side view of the FIG. 3 illustration; FIG. 5 is a front view of a shrouded propeller thruster in relationship to an apposed-piston engine for powering the aircraft body; FIG. 6 is a top view of the FIG. 5 shrouded propeller thruster in pushing relationship to a tricycle landing gear of the aircraft body on which an engine has an optional streamlined front cowling; FIG. 7 is a front view of a shrouded fan thruster in relationship to an apposed-piston engine for powering the aircraft body; FIG. 8 is a top view of the FIG. 7 shrouded fan thruster in pushing relationship to the tricycle landing gear of the aircraft body on which the engine has an optional streamlined cowling front; and FIG. 9 is a diagram of the remote-control powered parafoil aircraft having optionally non-interference communication between a remote-control unit and an aircraft body operating a selection of operational items from an airborne platform with remote control.
DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Listed numerically below with reference to the drawings are terms used to describe features of this invention. These terms and numbers assigned to them designate the same features throughout this description.
1. Aircraft body 24. Engine controller 2. Lines 25. Tank 3. Parafoil 26. Outlets 4. Ram entrances 27. Discharge conduit 5. Ram-air compartments 28. Item controller 6. Engine 29. Item servo 7. Propeller 30. Pumped-air wing 8. Television camera 31. Pumped-air compartment 9. Control unit 32. Leading edge 10. Control communication 33. Peripheral compartments 11. Control transceiver 34. Wheels 12. Craft transceiver 35. Rod frame 13. Television screen 36. Propeller duct 14. Foil controller 37. Pointed nacelle 15. Control lines 38. Turbine-like fan 16. First line reel 39. Fan blades 17. Second line reel 40. Base rim 18. Control foil 41. Output shaft 19. First control foil 42. Outside rim 20. Second control foil 43. Starter 21. First reel servo 44. Throttle 22. Second reel servo 45. Optional items 23. Engine servo 46. Non-interference system Referring to FIGS. 1-2, an aircraft body 1 is hung with lines 2 from an air- expandable wing that can include a parafoil 3 having ram entrances 4 to one or more ram-air compartments 5 for receiving ram air for expanding the parafoil 3 air-expandable wing.
There are a wide variety of air-expandable wings with a yet greater variety of detail designs that can be defined broadly as being parafoil for use with this invention. A currently popular parafoil 3 with a plurality of ram-air compartments 5 is popular justifiably not only as a result of its high lift-to-area
ratio, but also because of its reliable ram-air inflation when used. Ram air, however, can resist forward movement, whether used for wings or for engines, and, therefore, can increase propulsion-power requirements for forward travel if overused or not utilized effectively. Resistance to forward travel that increases propulsion power is meritorious for carrying people or things downwardly because conversely, it deters and thereby slows forward movement advantageously for softness of landing. For this invention, however, economy of sustained forward travel is also critical. An air-expandable wing, therefore, is intended to include air expansion that is effective and efficient for forward travel in addition to high lift and soft landing. Detail drawings of either are not included.
The aircraft body 1 is engine-powered with an engine 6 coupled to a thruster that can include a propeller 7. The engine 6 can be whatever shaft-power engine is found to be most efficient and effective for a particular thruster at speeds and altitudes intended.
Vision of ground area selectively from the aircraft body 1 for desired remote guidance is provided by a televison camera 8 on the aircraft body 1.
A control unit 9 is provided for remote control of the parafoil aircraft and equipment thereon selectively. There is control communication 10 intermediate a control transceiver 11 on the control unit 9 and a craft transceiver 12 on the aircraft body 1. There is television communication intermediate the television camera 8 and a television screen 13 which can be a picture-in-picture screen proximate the control unit 9.
A foil controller 14 that is preferably a joystick on the control unit 9, is in control communication through the control transceiver 11. The lines 2 include control lines 15 intermediate at least one line reel, preferably a first line reel 16 and a second line reel 17, on the aircraft body 1 and at least one control foil 18
that can include a first control foil 19 and a second control foil 20 on the air- expandable wing which can include the parafoil 3.
The first line reel 16 is in foil-control communication from the foil controller 14 to a first reel servo 21 and the second line reel 17 is in foil-control communication from the foil controller 14 to a second reel servo 22.
From the craft transceiver 12, an engine servo 23 proximate the engine 6 on the aircraft body 1 is in engine-control communication by an engine controller 24 on the control unit 9.
At least one operational item, represented by a tank 25 with outlets 26 from a discharge conduit 27, on the aircraft body is controlled by an item controller 28, represented by a plurality of optional item controllers 28 on the control unit 9. An item servo 29 proximate the operational item on the aircraft body 1 is in control communication intermediate the control unit 9 and the item through its item servo 29.
The control communication 10 includes television communication, foil- control communication, engine-control communication and at least one item- control communication.
Referring to FIGS. 3-4, the air-expandable wing can include a pumped-air wing 30 that has at least one pumped-air compartment 31 for containing pumped air. The pumped-air compartment 31 can extend from a leading edge 32 to proximate the control foils 18 or 19 and 20. Optionally for some uses, the pumped-air compartment 31 can be extended to only a short distance from the leading edge 32, leaving a lift arc thereafter. Pressure of the pumped air need not be greater than one-to-five psi above ambient air pressure. For air inflation, an inexpensive, high-volume, low-pressure pump can be run with the engine 6 or, with some four-stroke engines, the engine exhaust can be used for inflation.
Although requiring a slight time delay for inflation, variations of the pumped-air
wing 30 can be made to provide considerable advantages of low propulsion costs, potentially greater carrying capacity, lower speed if desired for some uses, higher speed if desired and constructed aerodynamically for large areas. Emergency or quick-use forms of the pumped-air wing 30 can be cannister-filled if desired.
Also, air could be hosed to the pumped-air wing 30 from a pump on the aircraft body 1 as needed while in flight.
Referring further to FIGS. 1-4, one or more peripheral compartments 33 can be provided for battery, starter, fuel and peripheral requirements for the engine 6 and for operational items. Although a tricycle landing gear with wheels 34 on a rod frame 35 is shown, different shapes and forms of the aircraft body 1 are foreseeable.
For whichever air-expandable wing is employed for this remote-control powered parafoil aircraft, guidance and control are achieved by selective pull of the first control foil 19 to turn in a first direction and by selective pull of the second control foil 20 to turn in a second direction. Pulling both equally at the same time causes high lift-drag for slow takeoff and landing and for high load capacity at decreased speeds.
Referring to FIGS. 5-6, a propeller 7 can have a propeller duct 36 either attached to ends of blades for rotation or held steady on framework at ends of the blades for decreasing lateral thrust in proportion to linear thrust. The engine 6 can have a pointed nacelle 37 to house a starter.
Referring to FIGS. 7-8, the thruster can include a turbine-like fan 38 having a series of fan blades 39 extended radially outward from a base rim 40 that is coupled to an output shaft 41 of the engine 6. Also, the turbine-like fan 38 can include an outside rim 42 that is duct-like proximate outside ends of the fan blades 39. Optimum thruster selection depends largely on availability of quality of construction and on features of available engines. For some uses, the
turbine-like fan 38 would be best, provided it can be produced at sufficiently low cost.
Referring to a system diagram of FIG. 9, a control transceiver 11 on the remote-control unit 9 has control communication 10 that preferably includes a non-interference communication system 46 with a craft transceiver 12 on the aircraft body 1. The non-interference communication system 46 relays control data from the joystick foil controller 14, from the engine controller 24 and from item controller 28 to the craft transceiver 12. The craft transceiver 12 relays the control data to the first reel servo 21 for the first line reel 16, to the second reel servo 22 for the second line reel 17, to the engine servo 23 for the starter 43 and the throttle 44 and to the item servo 29 for optional items 45 as programmed.
Communication can be two-way feed back for any and all servos. The television camera 8 sends live video vision from the aircraft body 1 to the television screen 13 proximate the remote-control unit 9.
The control communication 10 and the non-interference communication system 46 include the television communication, foil-control communication, engine-control communication and at least one item-control communication.
Other control options may be used to govern the operation of the invention, including manual remote control, remote control with optional in-flight autopilot assistance and fully autonomous flight from an optional on-board computer with mission update or override capability from remote-control unit.
A new and useful remote-control powered parafoil aircraft having been described, all such foreseeable modifications, adaptations, substitutions of equivalents, mathematical possibilities of combinations of parts, pluralities of parts, applications and forms thereof as described by the following claims and not precluded by prior art are included in this invention.
