Aircraft Page: 4 of 5
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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.
LOUIS V. JOHNSON, OF ORANGE, TEXAS.
AIRCRAFT.Specification of Letters Patent.
Patented Apr. 5, 1921.
Application filed July 3, 1919. Serial No. 308,464.
To all whom it-may concern:
Be it known that I, Louis V. JOHNSON,
a citizen of the United States, residing at
Orange, in the county of Orange and State
5 of Texas, have invented certain new and
useful Improvements in Aircraft, of which
the following is a specification.
This invention relates to aeronautics, and
more particularly to steering; and the ob-
10 ject of the same is to provide air craft with
means additional to its vertical and hori-
zontal rudders for correcting or for alter-
ing, the position of the craft within the air.
On water craft the order "trim ship" is
15 given when the boat is not traveling on an
even keel, or in other words when there is
a list to starboard- or to port, but the ship
is "trimmed" fore and aft by the proper
disposition of the cargo when it is loaded.
20 In an air craft the position of the body can
be corrected by this invention and then
steered by the rudders, or the invention may
be used to assist in steering. Specifically,
the invention consists in providing the body
25 with a weight, such as a car which may
carry cargo or passengers, mounting the
weight so that it may be moved with respect
to the center of mass,. and equipping the
structure with a control standing within
30 reach of the driver or pilot so that he can
adjust the weight at any time. Details of
the preferred manner of carrying out this
invention are set forth below and shown in
the drawings wherein:
35 Figure 1 is a side elevation of an aero-
plane equipped with this invention.
Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof with the
plane omitted.
Fig. 3 is a front elevation.
40 Fig. 4 is a sectional detail illustrative of
the control levers for the rudders, this view
showing the movable car, the control there-
for, and the connection between this control
and the car itself.
45 The framework of this craft, broadly
designated by the numeral 1, need not be of
special structure, as far as the present in-
vention is concerned, but is shown herein
as carrying a body 2 which is sharp at the
50 front and rear ends and is provided with a
floor 3, and at the top of the framework is
a single plane 4 arched transversely, as seen
in Fig. 3. The craft illustrated is driven
by a forward propeller 5 and a rearward
55 propeller 6, each having its own motor 7,
although this is not essential. It is desir-able, however, that heavy units such as the
propellers and the motors shall be so placed
that the center of mass of the entire struc-
ture shall be - at a point which in Fig. 1 60
would probably be about midway between
the uprights of the framework, and when
the craft is propelled straight through the
air and on an even keel, the floor 3 will be
level. - The numeral 8 designates the hori- 65
zontal rudder and the numeral 9 the vertical
rudder, these being operated by suitable
connections between them and the control
levers 18 and 19 shown in Fig. 4 as within
reach of the driver or pilot when he sits on 70
his fixed seat 10. Details are not important,
excepting that as usual he manipulates one
lever to adjust the position of the horizontal
rudder 8 for varying the pitch of the craft
and eventually its altitude, and he manipu- 75
lates the other lever for adjusting the ver-
tical rudder 9 for steering the craft to either
side.
The gist of the invention lies in the pro-
vision of a weight which is herein shown so
as a car 11 having wheels 12 mounted on
tracks 13 upon the floor 3 entirely in rear
of the operator's seat 10, the tracks 13 lead-
ing in both ._directions past the center of
mass. As herein shown, these tracks run 85
fore and aft, and the adjustment of the car
would therefore be longitudinal of the body
2 along its transverse center, but the broad-
est latitude in this respect is reserved. The
car is herein shown as provided with seats 90
14 which may accommodate passengers, but
they could be omitted and the car could
carry freight. Also it might- be slidably
mounted on suitable guides instead of hav-
ing wheels traveling on rails. It is essen- 95
tial only that the movable element be heavy
so that it may be described by the word
"weight," and that'it may rest exactly at the
center of mass or may be adjusted away
from said point. 100
One means of adjustment is shown in
Fig. 4.: It consists of an endless cable 15
attached at 16 to the car and its rear end
passing over an idler 17, while its front end
passes around a pulley fast on the shaft of 105
a manual control which is herein shown as
a wheel 19 mounted within reach of the
pilot when he is on his fixed seat 10. By
turning this wheel one way or the other the
car may be adjusted forward or backward, 110
as will be clear. As illustrated in Fig. 4,
the wheel 19 which moves about a horizon-1,374,150.
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Reference the current page of this Patent.
Johnson, Louis V. Aircraft, patent, April 5, 1921; [Washington D.C.]. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1258970/m1/4/?q=%22%22~1: accessed June 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.