Gyro-stabilized air vehicle

Abstract

A vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) air vehicle disclosed. The air vehicle can be manned or unmanned. In one embodiment, the air vehicle includes two shrouded propellers, a fuselage and a gyroscopic stabilization disk installed in the fuselage. The gyroscopic stabilization disk can be configured to provide sufficient angular momentum, by sufficient mass and/or sufficient angular velocity, such that the air vehicle is gyroscopically stabilized during various phases of flight. In one embodiment the fuselage is fixedly attached to the shrouded propellers. In another embodiment, the shrouded propellers are pivotably mounted to the fuselage.

1 . An aircraft for vertical, horizontal or stationary flight, comprising:
 a fuselage;   two shrouded propulsion assemblies;   a plurality of control surfaces attached to the shrouded propulsion assemblies for controlling the flight of the aircraft;   an engine mounted to the fuselage having an engine shaft arranged to rotate about a longitudinal axis of the aircraft;   two propellers one in each shrouded propulsion assembly that produces thrust such that the aircraft is in flight and such that air flow is created over the plurality of control surfaces;   a gyroscopic stabilization member attached to the engine shaft via a gear box such that the gyroscopic stabilization member rotates with an angular momentum that is selected, with respect to the moment of inertia of the aircraft about the axis of rotation of the gyroscopic stabilization member, such that the aircraft is gyroscopically stabilized during flight.