Aircraft recovery methods
AssigneeBritish Aircraft Corporation Limited
InventorsRichard David Greenhalgh, Ronald Alexander Saunders, George Reginald Seyfang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A powered remotely piloted vehicle which is not controllable at the low landing speeds necessary for landing on a platform of small area is provided with a para-foil type wing deployable at the beginning of a recovery sequence, and is further provided with a rocket ejectable line which is passed to the landing platform and winched in so that the composite flight vehicle and deployed para-foil wing is drawn towards the platform after the manner of a kite.
Claims2
A method of effecting transition of a flight vehicle having propulsion means from an in-flight state to an on-ground state including the following steps:
- deploying an inflatable wing from a stowed position in the vehicle such that the vehicle is suspended therefrom,
- maneuvering the combination of the vehicle and its deployed wing with the propulsion means operating to a position higher than and in the region of a landing surface,
- causing a line to be passed between the combination vehicle and the landing surface,
- causing the combination vehicle to act as a kite to maintain tension in the line by stopping the propulsion means, and,
- winding the line in so that the combination vehicle is drawn toward the landing surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.