United States of America As Represented by the Administrator of Nasa

Kitty Hawk Corporation

Wisk Aero LLC

Ian Fernandez

Cody Patrick Leuck

Bernard F Ahyow

Zachary Thomas Lovering

Ethiraj Venkatapathy

Kenneth R Hamm

Cody Leuck

A corrugated lift fan rotor is disclosed. In various embodiments, a rotor includes an upper skin, a lower skin, and an at least partly corrugated core encased between the upper skin and the lower skin. In some embodiments, the core comprises a composite material, such as carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite material, and includes an upper cap portion, a lower cap portion, and a web portion extending between the upper and lower cap portions.

Corrugated lift fan rotor

An electrically conductive and insulative composite (ECIC) is disclosed. In various embodiments, an ECIC as disclosed herein may include an electrically conductive structural element and one or more electrically insulative structural elements adhesively bonded to the conductive structural element to form a unitized structure having a design shape and one or more significant mechanical properties. The conductive structural element is substantially encapsulated by said one or more electrically insulative structural elements with the exception of one or more contact areas comprising portions of conductive material not encapsulated by said one or more electrically insulative structural elements.

Electrically conductive and insulative composite

A deployable aerodynamic decelerator structure includes a ring member disposed along a central axis of the aerodynamic decelerator, a plurality of jointed rib members extending radially from the ring member and a flexible layer attached to the plurality of rib members. A deployment device is operable to reconfigure the flexible layer from a stowed configuration to a deployed configuration by movement of the rib members and a control device is operable to redirect a lift vector of the decelerator structure by changing an orientation of the flexible layer.

Transformable and reconfigurable entry, descent and landing systems and methods

A truss beam comprised of a plurality of joined convex-curved rods with self-aligning adapters (SAA) adhesively attached at each end of the truss beam is disclosed. Shear web panels are attached to adjacent pairs of rods, providing buckling resistance for the truss beam. The rods are disposed adjacent to each other, centered around a common longitudinal axis, and oriented so that adjacent rod ends converge to at least one virtual convergence point on the common longitudinal axis, with the rods' curvature designed to increase prevent buckling for the truss beam. Each SAA has longitudinal bores that provide self-aligning of the rods in the SAA, the self-aligning feature enabling creation of strong adhesive bonds between each SAA and the rods. In certain embodiments of the present invention, pultruded unidirectional carbon fiber rods are coupled with carbon fiber shear web panels and metal SAA(s), resulting in a lightweight, low-cost but strong truss beam that is highly resistant to buckling.

Growing community of inventors

Boulder Creek, CA, United States of America

Ian Fernandez