Did You Know...
...that the first rickshaw was invented in 1869 by an American Baptist minister, the Rev. E. Jonathan Scobie, to transport his invalid wife around the streets of Yokohama?
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7871033 | Tilt actuation for a rotorcraft An aircraft is equipped with hingeless rotors on tilting nacelles, and the tilt angles of the nacelles are controlled using either or both of an actuator and a mast moment generated by a hingeless rotor. An aircraft with two or more rotors on tilting nacelles can ac... | 01/18/2011 |
| 7871034 | Rotor hub systems and methods A rotorcraft is equipped with a rotor hub of large diameter in order to accommodate high loads from a hingeless rotor. In preferred embodiments, a rotorcraft has a rotor disposed on a mast with blades attached to a hub by means of a feather bearing that receives a s... | 01/18/2011 |
| 7837141 | Reaction drive rotor/wing variable area nozzle In an exemplary variable area nozzle, a fixed duct section has an inlet and an outlet oriented approximately perpendicular to the inlet. A controllable nozzle member is disposed adjacent the outlet of the fixed duct section. The controllable nozzle member has an are... | 11/23/2010 |
| 7665688 | Convertible aerial vehicle with contra-rotating wing/rotors and twin tilting wing and propeller units A micro aerial vehicle can be converted during flight between a fixed wing flight mode and a rotary wing flight mode. The canard design micro aerial vehicle includes a fuselage, two tiltable propellers and airfoils arranged at a forward portion of fuselage, a pair o... | 02/23/2010 |
| 7624942 | Decoupled ducting for twin-engine reaction rotor drive An engine system for an aircraft capable of operating in a helicopter-type flight mode and a fixed-wing flight mode and is capable of transitioning between those flight modes while in-flight includes first and second engines, and a ducting assembly. The ducting asse... | 12/01/2009 |
| 7600711 | Flexible ducting system including an articulable sealed joint Aircraft including a powerplant mounted on an airframe and a rotor/wing rotatably mounted on the airframe. The rotor/wing has multiple blades extending outward from roots adjacent the airframe to tips opposite the roots and having internal conduits extending between... | 10/13/2009 |
| 7510139 | Rotor wing aircraft having a bypassable radial inflow turbine Aircraft including an airframe having a fuselage extending between a forward end and an aft end. The aircraft further includes a power plant mounted on the airframe producing exhaust during operation. The aircraft also includes a rotor/wing including a plurality of ... | 03/31/2009 |
| 7322545 | Structural mechanism for unlocking and engaging a controllable surface on a hinged platform (wing) A structural mechanism for an aircraft includes a support, a hinged surface, and a hinge assembly joining the hinged surface to the support. An actuation system includes an actuator shaft engaged to the hinges and lying coincident with a hinged-surface hinge axis an... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7308762 | Method and apparatus for rotatably supporting movable components, including canards Methods and apparatuses for rotatably supporting movable components, including canards. An apparatus in accordance with one embodiment of the invention includes an airfoil configured positioned external to an aircraft fuselage. A connecting portion can depend from t... | 12/18/2007 |
| 7275722 | Wing tip device An aircraft comprises a wing tip device, for example a winglet, a raked-tip device, a wing tip fence or a planar wing extension, mounted in the region of the tip of a wing on the aircraft. The wing tip device is rotatably moveable between a first position and a seco... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7267299 | Aircraft An aircraft includes a fuselage with a circular airfoil body supported thereabove on a vertical drive shaft mechanism. The airfoil body includes an upper disk forming an upper surface of the body and a lower disk forming a lower surface of the body in which the uppe... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7188802 | Convertible aircraft provided with two tilt fans on either side of the fuselage, and with a non-tilting fan inserted in the fuselage The present invention relates to a convertible aircraft provided with first and second tilt fans disposed on either side of the fuselage a little forward of the center of gravity of the convertible aircraft. In addition, the convertible aircraft includes, in remarka... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7178757 | Motorcycle rider autogyro An autogyro, or aircraft with a rotating wing, has an airframe providing a motorcycle-like configuration for the rider. The motorcycle-like straddle-type seat locates the rider in front of the rotating wing, behind a teardrop shaped simulated fuel tank, and above th... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7159817 | Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft with distributed thrust and control An aircraft having a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) propulsion system. The aircraft includes a fuselage, the VTOL propulsion system, at least one forward thruster, a power source used for both the VTOL propulsion system and forward thruster, fore and aft wings... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7121503 | Better balanced canard airplane with forward engine To optimize the performance of a canard airplane with an engine in front, the canard is mounted forward of its location in existing canard airplanes. Specifically, the canard is located with its leading edge significantly ahead of the firewall. This allows the canar... | 10/17/2006 |
| 7118066 | Tall V/STOL aircraft A vertical or short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) airplane is described having a vertical form factor. Making the airplane tall has many advantages when operating in hover mode close to the ground. Several variations of the design are described. The preferred embodim... | 10/10/2006 |
| 7093788 | Rotating flying wing aircraft and control system A rotating wing aircraft has a rotating fuselage and wings. The aircraft is configured to rotate with the air passing over the wings because of the rotation providing the lift needed to keep the aircraft aloft. The wings have rudders coupled to them, such as at the ... | 08/22/2006 |
| 7090164 | Method for producing a lift and a horizontal thrust A method of producing a lifting force and a horizontal force by aerodynamic surfaces includes the steps of moving aerodynamic surfaces along a circumference and providing their oscillations; rotating each of the aerodynamic surfaces synchronously with the movement a... | 08/15/2006 |
| 7090172 | Process for countering the vibrations induced in an aircraft by the windmilling of a fan and system of electric flight controls implementing this process A system and process for countering the vibrations induced in an aircraft by the windmilling of an engine fan may produce a first electric flight control command for a servocontrol to use in actuating a control surface of the aircraft. The servocontrol is slaved to ... | 08/15/2006 |
| 7014142 | Low-drag rotor/wing flap Rotor/wing aircraft having a low-drag flap are disclosed. In one embodiment, a rotor/wing aircraft includes an elongated blade having a body portion and a flap portion. The body portion has first and second edges and includes a non-symmetric portion proximate the se... | 03/21/2006 |
| 7004426 | Control system for rotorcraft for preventing the vortex ring state A flight control system for a rotorcraft to prevent the adverse effects of the vortex ring state is disclosed. In the flight control system of the present invention, selected control inputs are sent the rotorcraft prior to the onset of the vortex ring state. In the ... | 02/28/2006 |
| 6976653 | VTOL micro-aircraft VTOL micro-aircraft comprising a first and a second ducted rotor mutually aligned and distanced according to a common axis and whose propellers are driven in rotation in mutually opposite directions. Between the two ducted rotors are positioned a fuselage and a wing... | 12/20/2005 |
| 6974105 | High performance VTOL convertiplanes A single-tilt-rotor VTOL airplanes have a tiltable rotor attached to an elongated power pod containing the collective and cyclical pitch mechanism, and transmission. The power pod is pivotably attached to a base that is slidably mounted on a pair of slotted guide be... | 12/13/2005 |
| 6969029 | Methods and systems for removing material from aircraft flight surfaces Methods and systems for removing material from aircraft flight surfaces are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, an aircraft nacelle includes an inlet housing having a lip, a wiper positioned at the lip and movable relative to the lip, and a drive assembly positione... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6923404 | Apparatus and methods for variable sweep body conformal wing with application to projectiles, missiles, and unmanned air vehicles An unmanned air vehicle (“UAV”) apparatus is configured to have a body and a body-conformal wing. The body-conformal wing is configured to variably sweep from a closed position to a fully deployed position. In the closed position, the body-conformal wing span is... | 08/02/2005 |
| 6885917 | Enhanced flight control systems and methods for a jet powered tri-mode aircraft A method of stabilizing a jet-powered tri-mode aircraft as the aircraft travels in a helicopter mode, a compound mode, and a fixed-wing mode is disclosed. The method includes receiving a plurality of velocity vector component values and velocity vector commands deri... | 04/26/2005 |
| 6868315 | Flight control system for controlling the pitch of an aircraft with vertical takeoff and with an orientable lift direction A flight control system for controlling the pitch of an aircraft having a vertical takeoff capability and an orientable lift direction may include a first device, to which a pitch command determined by a computing unit is applied, for actuating an element acting on ... | 03/15/2005 |
| 6845941 | Rotary/fixed wing aircraft A rotor system that allows an aircraft to operate as a helicopter and as an airplane is disclosed. The invention incorporates an annular airfoil attached at the tips of the rotor blades. The rotor system stops and is secured from rotation for operation at high forwa... | 01/25/2005 |
| 6712313 | Constant velocity drive rotary-wing aircraft rotor with torque splitting differential A constant velocity drive mechanism of a rotary-wing aircraft rotor, comprises a torque splitting differential mechanism, comprising a driving disc integral in rotation with a rotor mast and connected to each of two driven discs either side of the driving disc, by a... | 03/30/2004 |
| 6708921 | Composite flapping flexure A composite flapping flexure is disclosed in which load carrying belts are located on the upper and lower surfaces of the flexure, and minor load carrying off-axis layers are located at the mid-plane of the flexure. ... | 03/23/2004 |
| 6644588 | Multi-mode tiltrotor nacelle control system with integrated envelope protection A tiltrotor aircraft (11) has a multi-mode tiltrotor nacelle control system with integrated envelope protection (13). The tiltrotor aircraft (11) has a fuselage (15), a tail section (17), a left wing member (21a), a right wing member (21b), a right engine... | 11/11/2003 |
| 6607161 | Convertible aircraft with tilting rotors Improving convertible aircraft of the aforementioned type mainly in terms of the active control of vibrations, while at the same time avoiding the addition of significant additional masses for essentially countering the excitations caused by the rotors an... | 08/19/2003 |
| 6589017 | Aircraft airfoil assembly and method An aircraft rotatable airfoil assembly in the nature of a helicopter machine and having two airfoils diametrically disposed about an axis of rotation. Air baffles are mounted on the radially inner and radially outer ends of the airfoils and for blocking t... | 07/08/2003 |
| 6561455 | Vertical take-off and landing, aerodynamically self-sustained horizontal flight hybrid aircraft An vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) and horizontal flight (HF) aircraft has a fuselage with wings providing lift during horizontal flight, a rotor on the nose of the fuselage that is stowable during horizontal flight, a first pair of ducted fan propel... | 05/13/2003 |
| 6543719 | Oscillating air jets for implementing blade variable twist, enhancing engine and blade efficiency, and reducing drag, vibration, download and ir signature A porous surface on an aircraft structure driven with oscillating positive and negative pressures is used as an active control device for attenuating negative aerodynamic interactions. The porous surfaces can be driven with positive and negative pressures... | 04/08/2003 |
| 6450446 | Counter rotating circular wing for aircraft The present invention herein is a disc shaped wing comprised two disc segments, an inner disc assembly and an outer disc assembly, that counter-rotate to enable vertical take off and landing. The inner disc assembly has a plurality of flap blades that ope... | 09/17/2002 |
| 6398159 | Arial disk An aircraft comprising a body and a plurality of disks rotatably coupled to the body. The disks may be configured to (i) rotate in the same or different directions, (ii) rotate at similar and/or different speeds, and (iii) provide lift and/or stability to... | 06/04/2002 |
| 6344700 | Redundant electrical DC power system for aircraft A DC electrical power generation system for aircraft having primary and emergency generation systems is disclosed. The system includes a transmission driven power generator, a dedicated generator control unit and a distribution network for providing suffi... | 02/05/2002 |
| 6244537 | Apparatus for operating a wing in three modes and system of use An apparatus that permits a rotatable wing to be operated in three modes: a first orientation mode, a second orientation mode, and a mode in which the wing rotates (called the rotating mode). The apparatus permits the wing to be stowed and used in both fi... | 06/12/2001 |
| 6170779 | Rotor pitch lock for rotary/wing aircraft The present invention comprises an apparatus for locking the pitch axes of the rotor blades of a rotor/wing aircraft so as to form a rigid wing. In one embodiment of the present invention the rotor blades of a rotor/wing aircraft are locked to each other ... | 01/09/2001 |
