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US 8,800,936 B2Granted
Unmanned aerial vehicle drag augmentation by reverse propeller rotation
AssigneeAeroVironment, Inc.
InventorsMartyn Cowley, Matthew Todd Keennon
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An air vehicle configured to augment effective drag to change the rate of descent of the air vehicle in flight via propeller shaft rotation direction reversal, i.e., thrust reversal.
Claims8
An air vehicle comprising:
- at least one propeller, each propeller comprising at least one blade having a constant pitch angle;
- at least one propeller motor configured to reverse propeller rotation rate of the at least one propeller while the air vehicle is in flight;
- and
- an autopilot configured to maintain airspeed of the air vehicle above stall conditions using the propeller motor while the air vehicle is in flight.
1 more element
A method of in-flight augmentation of an air vehicle descent rate comprising:
- regulating, via an autopilot, an airspeed value of the air vehicle by regulating a motor;
- and
- generating an input to effect a change in the in-flight descent rate of the air vehicle via rotation rate reversal of at least one propeller of the air vehicle, each propeller comprising at least one blade having a constant pitch angle;
- and
- rotating, via the motor and responsive to the input, the propeller shaft in a direction of rotation for generating forward air vehicle thrust.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.