Aerovironment, Inc.

Matthew Todd Keennon

Karl Robert Klingebiel

Alexander Andryukov

Bart Dean Hibbs

John Peter Zwaan

Martyn B Cowley

Henry Thome Won

An air vehicle configured to augment effective drag to change the rate of descent of the air vehicle in flight via propeller shaft rotation direction reversal, i.e., thrust reversal.

Unmanned aerial vehicle drag augmentation by reverse propeller rotation

Heavier-than-air, aircraft having flapping wings, e.g., ornithopters, where angular orientation control is effected by variable differential sweep angles of deflection of the flappable wings in the course of sweep angles of travel and/or the control of variable wing membrane tension.

Air vehicle flight mechanism and control method

A rotorcraft including a fuselage, one or more motor-driven rotors for vertical flight, and a control system. The motors drive the one or more rotors in either of two directions of rotation to provide for flight in either an upright or an inverted orientation. An orientation sensor is used to control the primary direction of thrust, and operational instructions and gathered information are automatically adapted based on the orientation of the fuselage with respect to gravity. The rotors are configured with blades that invert to conform to the direction of rotation.

Invertible aircraft

A flapping wing driving apparatus includes at least one crank gear capstan rotatably coupled to a crank gear, the at least one crank gear capstan disposed radially offset from a center of rotation of the crank gear; a first wing capstan coupled to a first wing, the first wing capstan having a first variable-radius drive pulley portion; and a first drive linking member configured to drive the first wing capstan, the first drive linking member windably coupled between the first variable-radius drive pulley portion and one of the at least one crank gear capstan; wherein the first wing capstan is configured to non-constantly, angularly rotate responsive to a constant angular rotation of the crank gear.

Growing community of inventors

Simi Valley, CA, United States of America

Matthew Todd Keennon