SG10201810476RA - Air vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

AIR VEHICLE : According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a system and method for providing propulsion and control to an air vehicle, and for operating the vehicle, in which at least three propulsion units provide vertical thrust for vectored thrust flight, and in which at least one or two of the propulsion units also provide thrust for vectored thrust cruising or aerodynamic flight by suitably tilting the respective propulsion units for changing the thrust vector thereof. At the same time, the three or more propulsion units are operated to generate controlling moments to the air vehicle about three orthogonal axes, pitch, roll and yaw, during vectored thrust flight (hover, cruising, etc.) or during aerodynamic flight for controlling the vehicle. The control moments are generated by selectively varying the thrust generated by each of the propulsion units independently of one another, and: by selectively vectoring the thrust of one propulsion unit with respect to each of two independent tilt axes independently of one another, or by selectively vectoring the thrust of each of two propulsion units with respect to a respective tilt axis, independently of one another. Fig. 1