Air driven propeller

Claim 1

An air driven propeller assembly for converting relative wind forces into rotary torque, said assembly including a hub defining an axis of intended rotation to be disposed generally parallel the direction of wind movement, said hub being hollow and including opposite ends spaced along said axis, one rear end of said hub being closed and the other front end being open to receive therein a portion of the wind incident upon said assembly, said hub including a plurality of elongated hollow propeller blades supported therefrom including root and tip ends as well as leading and trailing edges, support means removably supporting the root ends of said blades from said hub at points spaced thereabout for angular displacement of said blades about their longitudinal axes relative to said hub and with said root ends opening into the interior of said hub inwardly of said open end and the tip ends of said blades extending outwardly from said hub, said trailing edges including air outlet means defining air outlets spaced therealong opening outwardly of said blades in directions generally opposite to the directions in which said leading edges face, said outlet means defining the air outlets spaced along a major portion of the length of each blade, each of said blades including an internal elongated longitudinally extending tubular shank, the inner ends of said tubular shanks corresponding to said root ends also opening into said rear closed end of said hub and the remote outer ends of said shanks opening into the interiors of the outer end portions of said blades whereby the pressure of ram air entering the open end of said hub may be maintained more evenly throughout the length of the interior of each of said blades, said hub including circumferentially spaced generally radially extending support sleeves, said support means including said support sleeves and the inner ends of said tubular shanks, said tubular shanks being captively received through said sleeves and angularly displaceable relative thereto, said support means further including means operatively connected between said hub and said shanks for adjustably angularly displacing the latter relative to said sleeve.