Ground effect vehicle with applied differential torque steering means

1,032,391. Vehicles capable of travelling on land, water and in the air. BRITISH AIR CRAFT CORPORATION (OPERATING) Ltd. May 15, 1963 [May 23, 1962], No. 19925/62. Addition to 1,026,810. Headings B7K and B7W. A ground effect vehicle temporarily supported by gaseous jet thrust has means installed which produce a vertical thrust of a magnitude less than the weight of the vehicle but exceeding the thrust required for steady hovering which enables the vehicle to leap above the steady hover height, also propulsion means which impart a forward speed to the vehicle, which is thus capable of leaping over obstacles of a given length and height, a ground effect cushion being formed by a plurality of ducted fans arranged along the side walls and along the front and rear walls of the vehicle, producing an outer and an inner jet curtain of rectangular plan form. As shown in Figs. 1 and 5, a ground effect cushion is formed by means of ducted fans 20 along the side walls and ducted fans 120 along the front and rear walls of the vehicle. Two internal combustion engines 3 are geared to a main gear-box 4 and thence by flexibly jointed shafts 5 and auxiliary gearboxes 6 to the fans 20, and by shafts 15 and auxiliary gear-boxes 16 to the fans 120. The inner jet curtain may have an inward flow component (Fig. 5). The vehicle wheels 2 are articulated to the vehicle body 1 by means of leading links 7 and trailing links 9 and are sprung by means of dual-purpose hydraulic jacks 10 serving also for retracting the wheels 2 up into the body 1 for hovering or leaping. One or other of the two engines 3 is used to drive the wheels 2, while for hovering both engines are used. The extra energy for a leap is stored preparatory to the leap in two contra-rotating fly-wheels 17 coupled to the main gear-box 4, from which the energy is derived during the leap. Preparatory to a leap, the engines 3 are set to maximum power and accelerate the ducted fans 20 and 120, which are in the fully feathered position, and the flywheels 17 to full speed and then, by setting the ducted fans to active pitch, the increased energy required for the leap is released both from the engines 3 and the flywheels 17. Stabilization in the air is effected by controlling the blade angle and/or rotational speed of the ducted fans differentially for both roll and pitch and steering may be effected by vanes in the jet outlets or by auxiliary jets. Flow straighteners may be provided below each fan and there may be a flexible sk