British Patent Abridgments

An aircraft wing has one or more fans or blowers located at its trailing edge and tillable downwardly into a position in which the fan exhaust gives a jet flap effect. The illustrations show a wing 11 supporting at intervals gas turbine engines 18 in nacelles beneath the wing. Each engine supports, and drives through shafting and gearing 19, two ducted fans 12, the engine exhaust gases passing rearwardly between the fans. In normal flight, the fan axes 20 are horizontal, and the fans provide propulsion. During take‐off or landing, each fan is tilted as in broken lines, so that the leading edge of its duct abuts the trailing edge 13 of the wing, to produce lift by jet reaction and the jet flap effect. The fans may have variable pitch blades, reverse pitch being used on landing for braking and for destroying the lift on the wing, thereby improving ground adhesion. An engine may drive more than two fans, or only one fan, in which case the engine may be located in the fan within its blade ring.