Loading patent…
AssigneeUnited States of America AS Represnted By the Adminstrator of Nasa
InventorsDAVID D. NORTH, MICHAEL P. HENDRICKSON, JOSHUA . GLAAB
Estimating the term…
The presently disclosed embodiments relate to vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft that have the capability of hovering in both a “nose forward” and a “nose up” orientation, and any orientation between those two. The disclosed aircraft can also transition into wing born (non-hovering) flight from any of the hovering orientations. In addition, certain of the disclosed embodiments can, if desired, use only vectored thrust control to maintain stable flight in both hover and forward flight. No control surfaces (e.g. ailerons, elevators, rudders, flaps) are required to maintain a stable vehicle attitude. However, the disclosure contemplates aircraft both with and without such control surfaces.
A method of operating an aircraft, the aircraft having an elongate fuselage and a plurality of thrusters that are articulable with respect to the elongate fuselage, the method comprising:
A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to at least:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.