Textron Innovations Inc.

Kent E Donaldson

Kyle Smolarek

Lynn Francis Eschete

Charles Eric Covington

Thomas Dewey Parsons

Phillip Anthony Kendrick

Mark Loring Isaac

Andrew Thomas Carter

An exemplary aircraft includes a wing positioned below a vertical rotor, the wing extending to an outboard end, and an anhedral winglet extending from the outboard end through an angular transition to a tip, the anhedral winglet having an external surface exposed to the rotor downwash and the external surface is contoured to generate local wing lift in response to the rotor downwash.

Download reducing winglets for aircraft having a rotor producing downwash and method of operating the same

In an embodiment, an aircraft includes a drive system, a main engine coupled to the drive system to provide first power, and a supplemental engine coupled to the drive system to provide second power additive to the first power. The aircraft also includes a control system to control the main engine and the supplemental engine to optimize usage of the supplemental engine. The control system is operable to maintain the supplemental engine in a reduced power state at least until a determination is made that supplemental power is needed to satisfy a total power demand of the drive system. The control system is also operable to determine that supplemental power is needed to satisfy the total power demand of the drive system. The control system is further operable to increase a power level of the supplemental engine in response to the determination that supplemental power is needed.

Optimizing usage of supplemental engine power

An aircraft includes a wing positioned below a vertical rotor, the wing extending in a transverse direction to a wingtip having an outboard face, and a turbulence feature located on the wingtip and oriented to induce turbulence in the rotor downwash flowing across the outboard face in a direction from a top surface of the wing to a bottom surface of the wing.

Download reducing wingtips

A landing gear assembly for an aircraft includes a landing member and an actuation mechanism coupled to the landing member. The actuation mechanism is configured to selectively actuate the landing member into a first landing position and a second landing position. The landing member is configured to support the aircraft in either the first landing position or the second landing position.

Growing community of inventors

Fort Worth, TX, United States of America

Kent E Donaldson