The Boeing Company

Blue Origin, LLC

Thomas S Koch

Matthew A Moser

Michael R Finn

Stefan Richard Bieniawski

Brian T Whitehead

Abraham J Pachikara

Paul H Carpenter

Matthew R Jardin

Stefan R Bieniawski

Systems and methods for determining bi-propellant volume and adjusting a mixture ratio are discussed herein. A controller can calculate an adjusted mixture ratio and command the rocket engine to implement the adjusted mixture ratio by opening or closing valves of the propellant tanks, which changes the volumetric flow rates of each of the propellants. The adjusted mixture ratio can be calculated by an algorithm based on sensed or calculated data associated with each propellant. The adjusted mixture ratio can be used to evenly deplete the propellants to reduce the amount of each propellant remaining after a mission and to improve propellant use, which allows for an increase in a non-propellant payload.

Propellant volume and mixture ratio control

Closed loop control of control surfaces is described herein. One disclosed example method includes measuring a flight metric of an aircraft during flight and calculating, using a processor, a deflection of a control surface of the aircraft based on the flight metric. The disclosed example method also includes adjusting the deflection to an effective deflection level based on the calculated deflection to reduce a drag coefficient of the aircraft.

Closed loop control of aircraft control surfaces

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Thomas S Koch