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US 5,109,788 AGranted
Apparatus for recovery of unmanned, reusable aircraft
AssigneeMSG Marine-und Sondertechnik GmbH
InventorWerner Heinzmann
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A flexible surface element is arranged on a vehicle to form a trampoline-like extendable or stretchable receiving or retrieval surface for drones. For this purpose, the surface element is brought out from a gathered-in, folded or pivoted-inward stored, stowed position into a mounted expanded position by means of extendable retention and guidance elements.
Claims1
An apparatus for recovering an unmanned reusable aircraft during a return phase in which landing occurs by remote control and the use of auxiliary means such as a parachute retrieval system, comprising:
- a flexible surface element (4) which is at least one of gatherable and foldable;
- and actuatable retaining and guidance means (2, 3) including two opposing L-shaped elements, the L-shaped elements each having a first leg that is extendable in a telescoping manner and a second leg that is pivotably mounted to a stern region of a ship so that the L-shaped elements are extendable in a longitudinal direction and outwardly pivotable for arranging the surface element horizontally beyond the stern region of the ship to form a trampoline-like retrieval surface (5) for the aircraft, and so that the L-shaped elements are longitudinally retractable and inwardly pivotable to form a stored stowage unit together with the surface element.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.