GB365188A - Improvements in or relating to gyroscopic systems - Google Patents

Abstract

365,188. Gyroscopic apparatus. MEREDITH, F. W., Royal Aircraft Establishment, South Farnborough, Hampshire. July 18, 1925, No 18389. [Class 97 (iii).] A gyroscopic system comprising a rotor and two gimbal rings and having the rotor axis vertical or horizontal, is provided with a gravitational control comprising a pendulum mounted on a single axis of oscillation and carrying nozzles for causing blasts of air to act on the rotor ring to erect the said ring or the other ring. The system is primarily intended for use on aircraft in connection with automatic control or for other purposes. The Figures show an arrangement in which the gyroscope 1 is mounted on an aero plane 3 with its axis vertical within a vertical ring 4 which is pivoted about a longitudinal axis 5 in a horizontal ring 6, the ring 6 being pivoted about a transverse horizontal axis 7 on the aeroplane. The gravitational control for erecting the ring 6 comprises a pendulum 9 mounted on the axis 7 and having an extension 10 carrying nozzles 11 which are supplied with compressed air and are directed towards opposite sides of a vane 12 carried by the ring 4. Tilting of the gyroscope relatively to the pendulum about the axis 7 causes the forces on the two sides of the vane to become unbalanced, the resulting torque about the axis 5 causing the gyroscope to precess about the axis 7. To maintain the rotor axis 2 at rightangles to the axis 7 an antitopple system is used comprising a piston valve 13 associated with the rings 4, 6 so as to detect relative movement between them, and nozzles 14 controlled by the valve and associated with the ring 6 for applying a torque thereto so as to precess the ring 4 to its normal position. Specification 365,186 is referred to.