Vertical tail unit for aircraft and aircraft equipped with same
View Patent ↗A vertical tail unit for an aircraft and an aircraft equipped with the vertical tail unit. The vertical tail unit is provided with an engine. The engine extends cantilevered beyond a fin of the vertical tail unit and is secured to the fin by a mount. The mount is at least partly attached to the fin. The mount comprises for example half-hoops arranged on either side of the fin.
1. A vertical tail unit for aircraft, the vertical tail unit comprising a fin presenting a first face and a second opposing face, and a flight control surface, said vertical tail unit being equipped with an engine extending in a plane containing the vertical tail unit, the engine being supported by the vertical tail unit,
wherein the engine extends cantilevered beyond at least one of the first face and the second face of the fin and is integral with said fin by a mount operably coupled to the fin such that the fin passes through an interior volume of the mount thereby forming an air flow channel on each side of the fin between an inner skin of the mount and an outer wall of said fin, wherein the mount comprises a plurality of discrete half-hoops disposed on each side of the fin, a radius of curvature of the half-hoops following a radius of curvature of an engine body.
2. The vertical tail unit according to claim 1 , wherein each half-hoop is integral with the location of a bottom extremity and with the location of a top extremity of one of said first face and said second face of the fin.
3. The vertical tail unit according to claim 1 , wherein the mount is equipped with an outer skin and an inner skin, the half-hoops being disposed in an inner volume provided between the outer and inner skins.
4. The vertical tail unit according to claim 3 , wherein the engine is integral with a rear extremity of the mount.
5. The vertical tail unit according to claim 1 , wherein the mount comprises at least one hoop, said hoop being situated at a location of at least one of a front extremity and a rear extremity of the mount.
6. The vertical tail unit according to claim 1 , wherein an air intake device extends cantilevered beyond the fin, said air intake device being integral with a front extremity of the mount.
7. The vertical tail unit according to claim 6 , wherein the air intake device is one-piece and detachable from the front extremity of the mount.
8. An aircraft equipped with a vertical tail unit according to claim 1 .