Aviation and Air Cushion Inventions

The Gimbal Fan

The Gimbal Fan is Dr. Bertelsen's most significant invention. It harnesses fan power so that air cushion vehicles (hovercraft) have precise vertical and horizontal lift. The chief benefit is hovercraft become completely controllable, and therefore completely usable for any task.

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Video:	Gimbal Fan in Action

What is a Gimbal Fan?

Gimbal Fans are powerful fans mounted in circular ducts. When installed into the chassis of an Aeromobile Hovercraft, a Gimbal Fan can move freely with two degrees of freedom to tilt fore, aft and laterally. When in the vertical position, 100% of the fan discharge air goes to lift. But when the Gimbal Fan is tilted, up to two thirds of the column of air (or slipstream) is available to produce thrust in any direction. The remaining one third of the air column produced by the Gimbal Fan is always directed downward to maintain lift.

The control forces produced by tilting the Gimbal Fans in any direction are of exactly the same order of magnitude as the propulsion forces. Those forces can be directed in any of the 360 degrees azimuth instantly, and can be canceled instantly or reversed. The energy available for propulsion, steering and braking is three times that required for lift. The usable and propulsive control force in Gimbal Fans is a function of the total installed power. If high, gusty, gale-force winds are what the hovercraft has to deal with, more powerful Gimbal Fans or additional Gimbal Fans can be installed. Since each Gimbal Fan has its own power and control mechanism, modularized power can  be added to any air cushion vehicle, as needed.

A minimum of two Gimbal Fans is needed per amphibian air cushion vehicle (Gimbal Fan Amphibious Hovercrafts), one on the bow and one on the stern. This allows the craft to hold its own in the face of gusts, grades, and currents without experiencing weather cocking tendencies. A twin Gimbal Fan hovercraft can be steered with precision, overcoming winds, graded terrain, obstacles and rushing currents of water. It can pivot in place, can go in reverse and is capable of high speed breaking. Gimbal Fan hovercrafts can be controlled under all conditions.

Gimbal Fans are also the power source for Dr. Bertelsen's Aeromobile - Aeroduct System.

What are the advantages of Gimbal Fans?

1. Like outboard motors, Gimbal Fans can be mass produced at low cost. 2. Mass produced Gimbal Fans can (like outboard motors) be installed in single units, or two, three, four or more units to design larger vehicles to carry more payload. 3. Flexibility of customer needs and vehicle design is possible since any size craft can be built using any number of stock Gimbal Fans. 4. Retrofitting of "conventional" hovercraft with Gimbal Fans can give these crafts a new found controllability. 5. A damaged or otherwise non-operable Gimbal Fan can be unplugged, removed and exchanged in short order with minimum cost and delay. 6. Each Gimbal Fan unit is self sufficient. It has its own fuel tank, battery, control and servo system and electrical system. 7. Each Gimbal Fan produces lift, thrust and steering independent of the others. Multiple Gimbal Fans increase not only performance, but total reliability of the vehicle. 8. The installed engine power of a stock 36 inch diameter ducted fan in a 44 inch spherical Gimbal Fan ring can vary from 40 h.p. to 300 h.p. The power of the Gimbal Fan can be tailored to the needs of the vehicle.

Last update: June 25, 2007