The invention relates to the field of aviation, particularly to designs for vertical take-off and landing aircraft. A convertiplane comprises a fuselage, a pair of wings (a fore wing and an aft wing), propulsion systems comprising engines and propellers, a vertical stabilizer, a landing gear, and rotatable pylons. Two lifting propulsion systems are disposed on pylons having two degrees of freedom relative to the yaw and pitch angle on each side of the fuselage so as to be capable of being fixed in position and of retracting forward or backward into fuselage niches during horizontal flight. A marching propulsion system is installed on a pylon having one degree of freedom relative to the pitch angle so as to be capable of being fixed in position, or is completely fixed, and is capable of being disposed in either the nose part or the tail part of the fuselage, and likewise on the leading edge or the trailing edge of the vertical stabilizer. The invention allows for increasing reliability and service life, increasing flight distance, and decreasing production costs for the convertiplane.

[Object] To provide a noise reduction apparatus, an aircraft, and a noise reduction method capable of increasing the amount of noise reduction.

[Solving Means] The noise reduction apparatus 1 includes a porous plate 2 disposed to face a fluid flow, the porous plate 2 including a bend region 5 bent toward an upstream side of the fluid flow. The bend region 5 is provided at the end portion 6 of the porous plate 2, and has a concave R-shape on an upstream side of the fluid flow. Although the direction of the fluid flow is typically deflected toward the outside from the center of the porous plate 2 due to the porous plate 2, the deflected fluid easily passes through the porous plate 2 since the porous plate has the bend region 5. Thus, the shear layer of the fluid flow is weakened, the noise induced by the vortex is reduced, and it is possible to increase the reduction amount of noise.

A flying robot comprising: a flying body unit; a propulsion portion comprising a plurality of propulsion units configured to cause propulsion to occur by driving rotor blades, the plurality of propulsion units being provided on the flying body unit; a working body unit; a manipulator unit configured to be capable of executing predetermined work and comprising one or more work manipulators provided on the working body unit; and connection units provided on the working body unit and the flying body unit so as to enable the flying body unit to be connected with and disconnected from the working body unit; wherein the flying robot executes the predetermined work by the work manipulators in a state in which the working body unit and the flying body unit are connected at the connection units. The flying robot is caused to execute a wide range of content of work as far as possible.

A method is provided for controlling an actuator for moving a load. The method includes receiving a selected bandwidth, wherein bandwidth is defined as the frequency at which the gain of the closed loop input-output response is relative to the steady state value and is related to the reciprocal of response time, receiving a command to move the load to a selected position, receiving a feedback of measured motor position, estimating reaction torque or force associated with moving the load in real time, and estimating rotational motor speed and motor position. The method further includes calculating gain for controlling position of the load as a function of the selected bandwidth, wherein in the gain represents an adjustment of at least one of the estimated motor position, motor rotational speed, and reaction torque. The method further includes determining a drive signal to apply to the actuator motor as a function of the estimated reaction torque, the estimated rotational motor speed, the estimated motor position, the gain and the selected position and transmitting the drive signal to the actuator motor to move the load.

A system for shrinking landing gear includes a shock strut having a cylinder and a piston to be received by the cylinder. The system further includes a collar coupled to a brace linkage and the piston, a torque arm configured to resist rotation between the collar and the piston, and a shrink linkage coupled between the torque arm and the cylinder. The collar rotates relative to the cylinder in response to retraction of the landing gear. Rotation of the collar rotates the piston and the torque arm relative to the cylinder. The rotation of the collar relative to the cylinder forces, via the shrink linkage, the piston towards the aircraft attachment within the cylinder.

A plurality of landing gear are rotatable between a flight position and a landing position under the control of a control system on a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. The plurality of landing gear may be separately and selectably rotatable to accommodate uneven or sloping terrain. The landing gear may include flight control surfaces and the degree of deployment of the landing gear controls the flight control surfaces. The flight control surfaces may include separately controllable elements. The aircraft may be a flight module of a modular and morphable air vehicle.

Disclosed herein are a vehicle system and method for VTOL. The vehicle system includes: a carrier vehicle and a cruise vehicle. The carrier vehicle includes one or more fuselages, one or more wings, one or more attach units coupled to the one or more fuselages or to the one or more wings, and propulsion systems operable to provide, at least, substantially vertical thrust and substantially horizontal thrust. The cruise vehicle includes one or more fuselages for carrying passengers or cargo and one or more wings. The one or more attach units of the carrier vehicle are adapted to couple to the cruise vehicle to detachably engage.

Disclosed herein are a vehicle system and method for VTOL. The vehicle system includes: a carrier vehicle and a cruise vehicle. The carrier vehicle includes one or more fuselages, one or more wings, one or more attach units coupled to the one or more fuselages or to the one or more wings, and propulsion systems operable to provide, at least, substantially vertical thrust and substantially horizontal thrust. The cruise vehicle includes one or more fuselages for carrying passengers or cargo and one or more wings. The one or more attach units of the carrier vehicle are adapted to couple to the cruise vehicle to detachably engage.

A universal aerial platform (11, 41) supports lift elements (13, 14), thrusters (15), landing gear (21, 22) and a fuel supply (16) and has a coupling mechanism (17) external to the aerial platform for coupling to a terrain vehicle (20) so as to convert any suitably adapted terrain vehicle to a flying vehicle (10, 40). The terrain vehicle forms the cockpit of the flying vehicle. The terrain vehicle (20) includes flight controls that are automatically coupled to the airplane structure either wirelessly or by wires when the terrain vehicle is coupled thereto.

An aircraft landing gear assembly having a main strut pivotally coupled to an aircraft, a bogie beam pivotally connected to the main strut, a first axle mounted at the first end of the bogie beam and arranged to carry one or more first wheel assemblies and brake assemblies, each first brake assembly being attached to the bogie beam by a brake rod, and a second axle mounted at a second end of the bogie beam and arranged to carry one or more second wheel assemblies and brake assemblies. A double acting actuator is coupled between the strut and the bogie beam to apply a compressive or tensile force to the bogie beam. The ends of the bogie beam are arranged to position the bogie pivot axis below a plane intersecting the axes of rotation of the first and second wheel assemblies when the strut is in the deployed condition.