The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 13, 2022
Filed:
Jun. 01, 2020
Bell Textron Inc., Fort Worth, TX (US);
Kip Gregory Campbell, Hurst, TX (US);
Textron Innovations Inc., Providence, RI (US);
Abstract
An unmanned rotorcraft includes an airframe, rotor blades that are coupled to the airframe for rotation therewith, a propulsion unit having a propeller, and an actuator that is coupled to the airframe and adapted to temporarily reorient the propulsion unit such that an axis of the propeller moves out of alignment with an axis of the rotor blades. Rotation of the propeller causes counter-rotation of the airframe and rotor blades. The rotor blades and blades of the propeller are adapted to deploy from collapsed positions when flight of the rotorcraft is initiated. A method of operation by the rotorcraft includes, when it is determined that a current heading does not correspond to a determined flight path, causing the actuator to temporarily reorient the propulsion unit in accordance with an angular orientation of the actuator relative to the current heading.