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US 6,484,968 B2Granted
Aircraft with elliptical winglets
OwnerFort F. Felkerinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An aircraft with swept back wings has winglets (202) at the outer ends of its wings (200). The winglets (202) curve upwardly as they extend outwardly from their intersection (204) with the wings (200). The curvature of the winglets (202) at least approximates a conical section curvature, e.g. an elliptical based on an ellipse having a major axis that extends vertically and coincides with the intersection (204) of the outer end of the wing (200) and the inner end of the winglet (202).
Claims13
An aircraft, comprising:
- a wing having an inner end, an outer end, an upper surface, a lower surface, a leading edge, and a trailing edge;
- and
- a winglet having an inner end, an outer end tip, an upper surface, a lower surface, a leading edge and a trailing edge;
- wherein the inner end of said winglet is connected to the outer end of said wing;
- wherein the upper and lower surfaces of the winglet and the leading and trailing edges of the winglet are continuations of the upper and lower surfaces of the wing and leading and trailing edges of the wing;
- wherein said winglet curves as it extends from its inner end out to its outer end tip and said curve has an increasing radius as it extends from the inner end of the winglet out to the outer end tip of the winglet;
- and
- wherein the curve that is followed by the winglet is from the group of curves consisting of a generally elliptical curve, a generally parabolic curve and a generally hyperbolic curve.
5 more elements
An aircraft, comprising:
- a wing having an inner end, an outer end tip, an upper surface, a lower surface, a leading edge, and a trailing edge;
- and
- a winglet having an inner end, an outer end, an upper surface, a lower surface, a leading edge and a trailing edge;
- wherein the inner end of said winglet is connected to the outer end of said wing;
- wherein the upper and lower surfaces of the winglet and the leading and trailing edges of the winglet are continuations of the upper and lower surfaces of the wing and the leading and trailing edges of the wing;
- and
- wherein said winglet follows a generally elliptical curve as it extends from its inner end out to its outer end tip and said elliptical curve has a major axis that extends substantially perpendicular to the wing reference plane and substantially intersects the location where the outer end of the wing is joined to the inner end of the winglet.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.