Back to results
US 7,607,615 B2Granted
Brake for a kite
AssigneeRevolution Enterprises, Inc.
InventorJoseph Hadzicki
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A kite brake and a kite that uses a brake are disclosed. The brake includes a spring-loaded standoff that is biased to push a top surface of a sail of the kite away from a strut of the kite when an air pressure on the bottom surface of the sail is less than a bias force of the spring. The brake can be deployed by operation of the kite, or simply based on a removal of the air pressure.
Claims20
A kite brake for a kite, the kite brake comprising:
- a spring-loaded standoff connected to a strut of the kite between opposite ends of the strut, the spring-loaded standoff biased to push a top surface of a sail of the kite away from the strut of the kite when an air pressure on the bottom surface of the sail is less than a bias force of the spring, to form the sail into a concave-up shape that removes lift from the kite.
A kite comprising:
- a sail having a top surface and a bottom surface;
- at least one strut supporting the sail along the top surface of the sail;
- a spring-loaded standoff connected to the at least one strut between opposite ends of the strut, the spring-loaded standoff biased to push a top surface of the sail away from the at least one strut when an air pressure on the bottom surface of the sail is less than a bias force of the spring, to form the sail into a concave-up shape that removes lift from the kite.
A kite comprising:
- a sail having a top surface and a bottom surface, the sail being responsive to an air pressure on the bottom surface to form a concave airfoil relative to the bottom surface of the sail;
- a strut traversing the top surface of the sail;
- a spring-loaded standoff connected to the strut between opposite ends of the strut, the spring-loaded standoff biased to push the top surface of the sail away from the strut when the air pressure on the bottom surface of the sail is less than a bias force of the spring to form a convex airfoil for the whole sail relative to the bottom surface of the sail, to remove lift from the kite.
A kite comprising:
- a leading edge pole defining a nose of the kite;
- a sail having a top surface and a bottom surface;
- at least one strut traversing the top surface of the sail;
- one or more control lines connected with the kite, and configured to be maintained under tension when an air pressure is applied to the bottom surface of the sail;
- a spring-loaded standoff connected to the at least one strut between opposite ends of the strut, the spring-loaded standoff biased to push against the top surface of the sail from the at least one strut when the air pressure on the bottom surface of the sail is less than a bias force of the spring, the at least one strut configured to rotate the leading edge pole to turn up the nose of the kite when the standoff is pushed against the top surface of the sail, to form the sail into a concave-up shape that removes lift from the kite.
2 more elements
A kite, comprising:
- a spring-loaded sail biased to a concave-up shape, the spring-loaded sail configured to switch entirely to a concave-down shape when an air pressure on a bottom surface of the spring-loaded sail exceeds a bias force of the spring-loaded sail, to form the sail into a concave-up shape that removes lift from the kite, and further configured to return to the concave-up shape when the air pressure drops below the bias force of the spring-loaded sail.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.