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:
Mar. 26, 2024
Filed:
Apr. 15, 2022
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc., Plano, TX (US);
Rikin Gupta, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Shardul Singh Panwar, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Taewoo Nam, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Ryohei Tsuruta, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Yufei Zhu, Ypsilanti, MI (US);
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc., Plano, TX (US);
Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha, Toyota, JP;
Abstract
An aircraft can include a wing. The wing can include a tip. A winglet can be pivotably connected to the wing proximate the tip. A connecting member can be operatively connected to the wing and the winglet. The connecting member can include a flexible material with a super elastic material member operatively connected to the flexible material. Thus, the connecting member can allow passive movement of the winglet responsive to real-time operational forces acting upon the aircraft. In some arrangements, the flexible material can be a fabric, and the super elastic material member can be a wire. In some arrangements, the super elastic material member can be configured to exhibit a non-linear stiffness profile. The non-linear stiffness profile can include a region of quasi-zero stiffness. The stiffness profile of the super elastic material member can be selectively varied, such as by controlling a temperature of the super elastic material member.