Vertical/short take-off and landing

Fig. 18-8 Switch-In deflector system.

the used lubricating oil is ejected overboard, can be
used.
15. Lift engines can be designed to operate in the
vertical or horizontal position and a thrust deflecting
nozzle fitted to provide some of the advantages of
thrust vectoring. Alternatively, the engine may be
mounted so that it can swivel through a large angle
to provide thrust vectoring. The lift-jet engine will
have an extremely hot, high velocity jet exhaust and
to reduce ground erosion by the jet the normal
exhaust nozzle may be replaced by a multi-lobe
nozzle to increase the rate of mixing with the
surrounding air.
16. The lift-fan engine is designed to reduce the jet
exhaust velocity, to reduce ground erosion and allow
operation from unprepared ground surfaces. It also
reduces the jet noise significantly. A range of design
options have been considered for this type of engine
and some are shown on fig. 18-11.

Fig. 18-9 Vectored thrust engine.

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 Vertical/short take-off and landing
Fig. 18-10 A lift-jet engine.
Remote lift systems
17. Direct lift remote systems duct the by-pass air or
engine exhaust air to downward facing lift nozzles
remote from the engine. These nozzles may be in the
front fuselage of the aircraft or in the wings. The
engine duct is blocked by means of a diverter similar
to that described in para. 10.
Fig. 18-11 Lift-fan engine configurations.
18. The remote lift-fan (fig. 18-12) is mounted in the
aircraft wing or fuselage, and is driven mechanically
or by air or gas ducted into a tip turbine, The drive
system is provided by the main propulsion power
plant or by a separate engine.
19. The advantage of the remote lift system is that
it gives some freedom to the aircraft to position the
193
 Vertical/short take-off and landing
Fig. 18-12 Remote lift fan.
propulsion system to the best advantage whilst still
maintaining the resultant thrust near the aircraft
centre of gravity in the jet lift mode. This freedom is
achieved at a cost of increased volume, particularly
with the gas driven systems, due to the size of the
ducts to feed the gas to the remote lift system.
Although the mechanically driven remote lift-fan
eliminates the need for these large gas ducts, it is
done at the expense of long shafts and high power
gearboxes and clutch systems.
Swivelling engines
20. This method consists of having propulsion
engines which can be mechanically swiveled closed
Fig. 18-13 Jet lift with swivelling nozzles.
194
through at least 90 degrees to provide thrust
vectoring (fig. 18-13). In addition to these propulsion
engines, one or more lift engines may be installed to
provide supplementary lift during the take-off and
landing phase of flight.
21. The swivelling engine system can only be used
with two or more engines. This then introduces the
problem of safety in the event of an engine failure.
So, although there is only a small weight penalty and
no increase in fuel consumption, safety considera-
tions tend to offset these advantages compared to
some of the other powered lift systems. The normal
method of providing aircraft control at low speeds is
by differential throttling and vectoring of the engines
which simplifies the basic engine design but makes
the control system more complex.
Bleed air for STOL
22. Fig. 18-14 shows one method how STOL can
be achieved with a form of 'flap blowing'. The turbo-
fan engine has a geared variable pitch fan and an
oversized low pressure (L. P.) compressor from the
exit of which air is bled and ducted to the flap system
in the wing trailing edge. The variable pitch fan
enables high L.P. compressor speed and thus high
bleed pressure to be maintained over a wide range of
thrusts. This gives excellent control at greatly
different aircraft flight conditions.
LIFT THRUST AUGMENTATION
23. In many cases on V/STOL aircraft augmentation
of the lift thrust is necessary to avoid an engine which
is oversized for normal flight with the consequent
effects of higher engine weight and fuel consumption
than would be the case for a conventional aircraft-
This lift thrust augmentation can be achieved in a
number of different ways:
(1) Using special engine ratings.
(2) Burning in the lift nozzle gas flow.
(3) By means of an ejector system.
Special engine ratings
24. Experience has shown that an engine rating
structure can be devised which provides high thrust
levels for short periods of time without reducing
engine life. Operation in ground effect and the take-
off and landing manoeuvres require maximum thrust
for less than 15 seconds so that use of a short lift
rating for that time is feasible. Fig. 18-15 shows an
example of thrust permissible with a 15 second short
lift rating compared to that with a 2.5 minute normal
lift rating.
 Vertical/short take-off and landing

Fig. 18-14 Flap blowing engine.

25. At high ambient temperatures, the engine may

run into a turbine temperature limit before reaching
its maximum r.p.m. and suffer a thrust loss as a
result. Restoration of the thrust can be achieved by
means of water injection into the combustion
chamber (Part 17) which allows operation at a higher
turbine gas temperature for a given turbine blade
temperature. If desired, water injection can also be
used to increase the thrust at low ambient tempera-
tures.

Lift burning systems

26. The thrust of the four nozzle lift/propulsion
engine may be boosted by burning fuel in the bypass
flow in the duct or plenum chamber supplying the
front nozzles. This is called plenum chamber burning
(P.C.B.) (fig. 18-16) and thrust of the by-pass air may
be doubled by this process. This thrust capability is
available for normal flight as well as take-off and
landing and so can be used to increase manoeuvra-
Fig. 18-15 Thrust increases with short lift
bility and give supersonic flight.
ratings.
27. The thrust of a remote lift jet can also be
augmented by burning fuel in a combustion chamber Ejectors
just upstream of the lift nozzle (fig. 18-17). This 28. The principle of the ejector is that a small, high
system is commonly known as a remote augmented energy jet entrains large quantities of ambient air by
lift system (R.A.L.3.). The thrust boost available from viscous mixing and an increase in thrust over that of
the burner reduces the amount of airflow to be the high energy jet results. A number of projected
supplied to it and therefore reduces the size of the V/STOL aircraft have incorporated this concept using
ducting needed to direct the air from the engine to either all the engine exhaust air or just the bypass
the remote lift nozzle. flow.

195
 Vertical/short take-off and landing

Fig. 18-16 Plenum chamber burning.

Fig. 18-17 Remote augmented lift system.

196
 Vertical/short take-off and landing
Fig. 18-18 Reaction control system.
AIRCRAFT CONTROL
29. The low forward speeds of V/STOL aircraft
during take-off and transition do not permit the
generation of adequate aerodynamic forces from the
normal flight control surfaces, it is therefore
necessary to provide one or more of the following
additonal methods of controlling pitch, roll and yaw.
Reaction controls
30. This system bleeds air from the engine and
ducts it through nozzles at the four extremities of the
aircraft (fig. 18-18), The air supply to the nozzles is
automatically cut off when the main engine swivelling
propulsion nozzles are turned for normal flight or
when the lift engines are shut down. The thrust of the
control nozzles is varied by changing their area
which varies the amount of airflow passed.
Differential engine throttling
31. This method of control is used on multi-engined
aircraft with the engines positioned in a suitable con-
figuration. A rapid response rate is essential to
enable the engines to be used for aircraft stability
and control. It is usually necessary to combine differ-
ential throttling with differential thrust vectoring to
give aircraft control in all areas.
Automatic control systems
32. Although it is possible for the pilot to control a
V/STOL aircraft manually, some form of automation
can be of benefit and in particular will reduce the pilot
workload. The pilot's control column is electronically
connected to a computer or stabilizer that receives
signals from the control column, compares them with
signals from the sensors that measure the attitude of
the aircraft, and automatically adjusts the reaction
controls, differential throttling or thrust vectoring
controls to maintain stability.
197