Aircraft skywriting method, apparatus, and system
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorNathan D. Hiller
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method, system and apparatus are provided for generating indicia in the sky using a single pass of an aircraft. A system of an embodiment for communicating a message from an aircraft includes: a plurality of valves; a plurality of nozzles, where each nozzle is associated with a corresponding valve, and where the plurality of nozzles are distributed along a span of a wing of the aircraft; at least one tank in fluid communication with the plurality of valves; and a controller configured to individually control each of the plurality of valves, where the controller is configured to individually actuate the plurality of valves to generate, from contents of the tank received at each nozzle, cloud bursts to be suspended in the air.
Claims20
A system for communicating a message from an aircraft comprising:
- a plurality of valves;
- a plurality of nozzles, wherein each nozzle is associated with a corresponding valve, and wherein the plurality of nozzles are distributed along a span of a wing of the aircraft;
- at least one tank in fluid communication with the plurality of valves;
- and
- a controller configured to individually control each of the plurality of valves,
- wherein the controller is configured to individually actuate the plurality of valves to generate, from contents of the tank received at each nozzle, cloud bursts to be suspended in air,
- wherein the at least one tank contains water, and wherein the cloud bursts comprise water vapor cloud bursts.
A method for communicating a message from an aircraft comprising:
- providing fluid or gas to each of a plurality of valves, each valve associated with a respective nozzle of a plurality of nozzles, wherein the plurality of nozzles are distributed along a span of a wing of the aircraft;
- and
- individually controlling each of the valves of the plurality of valves with a controller to produce one or more cloud bursts from a respective nozzle, wherein the one or more cloud bursts are produced to cooperate to form indicia suspended in an atmosphere trailing the aircraft as the aircraft advances through the atmosphere,
- wherein the plurality of nozzles are displaced relative to one another along the span of the wing of the aircraft in a direction of travel of the aircraft, and wherein the controller is configured to introduce a sequential delay of actuation of the nozzles from a foremost nozzle to a rearmost nozzle to produce a cloud burst line substantially perpendicular to the direction of travel of the aircraft.
An apparatus for communicating a message from an aircraft, comprising processing circuitry and at least one non-transitory memory including computer program code instructions, the computer program code instructions configured to, when executed, cause the apparatus to at least:
- receive an indication of a message to be conveyed from an aircraft wherein the aircraft comprises a plurality of valves in communication with a respective nozzle of a plurality of nozzles and a tank of a plurality of tanks distributed along a span of a wing of the aircraft, wherein the plurality of nozzles are distributed along the span of the wing of the aircraft;
- and
- individually actuate at least some of the plurality of valves to emit from the respective at least some of the plurality of nozzles cloud bursts to be suspended in air, wherein the cloud bursts to be suspended in the air cooperate to form indicia suspended in the air conveying the message.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.