(Another) Pender Nose-Sitter VTOL Patent.

Hi folks,
Inspired by Hesham’s find of David D. Pender’s VTOL nose-launching / nose-landing concept, below are some details on Pender’s original VTOL patent. I gather the proposed aircraft would take off and land vertically on its nose, using a stowable rotor mounted behind its tail. Passenger seats face to the rear of the vehicle, with pilot-installation tilting through a right-angle for take-off and landing: “Except for the fact that the craft will be lifted vertically by its tail through a unique rotor structure, the passengers will experience a normal flight sensation from terminal-to-terminal in an aircraft which is substantially conventional based on modem-day standards”, says Pender.
See: http://www.google.co.uk/patents/US3582021
Cheers, ‘Wingknut’

Publication number: US3582021 A
Filing (and priority) date: August 13th 1969
Inventor (and original assignee): Pender, David R


Related patent (as found by Hesham): Vertical take-off and landing aircraft (US 3762667 A)
http://www.google.com/patents/US3762667?dq=NTG+aircraft#PPP2,M1
See this thread: http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,4074.0/all.html

Wingknut said:

... the passengers will experience a normal flight s

Click to expand...

How was the transition planned to happen ? I can see no way to gather forward speed through the
phase, when the aircraft is lifted by the rotor. Lifting and gathering speed from a safe height would
probably be possible, but the passengers would probably experience more, than just a normal flight !

Hi Jemiba,
Yes, good question, and I don't know the answer. Looking at both Pender patents, just firing the main flight engines in the hover seems likely to take it straight back into the ground, nose-first. The whole thing looks doomed. I'm not sure if it's the worst VTOL idea I've ever seen but I can't easily think of a worse one.
Thanks and all best wishes, 'Wingknut'.

We had a similar idea before, I think, but for a UAV, not a manned aircraft. And I even found it
using the search engine !
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,18556.msg178561.html#msg178561
Not a nose or tail sitter, but if used for pax transport, they would have to pay an additional
fee for the included funfair !

Thanks, Jemiba - I missed that one and it's very interesting.
I recently found a patent for a family of genuine nose-sitter VTOLs, including one that's like a sort of reverse Grumman 'Nutcracker', which I hope to post soon.
All best wishes, 'Wingknut'.

Re: (Another) Pender Nose-Sitter VTOL Patent + Robins 'Nose Sitter'.

Here is the 'reverse Nutcracker' patent for a VTOL design I mentioned above - not due to Pender but to one Samuel Davis Robins instead:
'Aircraft provided with fixed and rotary wings for convertible types of flight', http://www.google.com/patents/US2437789