DETAILED DESCRIPTION This invention relates to aircraft, and particularly to a novel aircraft, suitable for unmanned operation, and deployable from a collapsed condition by inflation.
A delta-shaped, low aspect ratio, lifting body configuration has been found to be ideal for a large scale aircraft taking advantage of both aerodynamic and static lift, as described in U.
S.
Reissue Pat.
Re.
28,454, dated Jun.
17, 1975.
The delta-shaped lifting body configuration also exhibits desirable characteristics for use in heavier-than-air aircraft of various sizes.
As stated in U.
S.
Pat.
No.
3,684,217, dated Aug.
15, 1992, delta wing lifting bodies possess favorable stall characteristics and are capable of relatively high cruising speeds and low landing speeds.
Moreover, they can be made to carry large payloads efficiently.
For example, as described in U.
S.
Pat.
No.
4,896,160, dated Jan.
23, 1990 and 5,034,751, dated Jul.
23, 1991, a delta-shaped lifting body aircraft is ideally suited as an airborne surveillance platform, carrying a large radar antenna array.
A delta-shaped lifting body is characterized by a generally triangular, or delta-shaped, planform with a narrow nose at one corner, leading edges extending from the nose to the respective opposite corners, and a trailing edge extending from one of said opposite corners to the other.
The planform is substantially symmetrical about an imaginary plane of symmetry extending from the nose to the midpoint of the trailing edge.
The cross-sections of the hull transverse to the plane of symmetry are generally ellipse-like at the leading edges, convex at the upper surface, and, depending on the airload, concave at the lower surface.
These cross-sections progressively decrease in height, while continuing to increase in width, from an intermediate location near, but aft of, the nose of the aircraft toward the trailing edge.
The cross-sections of the hull extending from the nose to the intermediate location at which the height of the cross-sections begins to decrease, may progressively increase both in height and width
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