Originally Posted by
Fly Aiprt
Of course I was considering switchable (mechanical or not) gear ratios.
If a gear change/derailleur appears beyond Boeing's engineering capacities, they may shop around at any bicycle vendor's ;-)
BTW, weren't the Wright brother bicycle makers ?
To be practical any mechanical fix would need to fit in the existing manual trim wheel space and could not involve 'remote' control of anything external such as a gear box in the tail.
It must also be certifiable with failure modes that can be analyzed to be extremely unlikely, that by itself rules out anything remotely resembling a derailleur.
Beyond the 'ratcheting handle' the only other thing that springs to mind is a planetary gear arrangement with a locking mechanism to reverts to a solid connection for use once near in trim.
This might fit and be certifiable,especially since most potential failures would result in a jam bypassing the reduction while still allowing wheel to be turned, with others covered by the locking means.
I think I have one year to file the patent papers from time of first publication
