Stowable and deployable unmanned aerial vehicle
AssigneeNorthrup Grumman Systems Corporation
InventorChristopher N. Torre
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can be deployed from a small stowed package for flight and stowed back into the package after the flight is complete is disclosed. The UAV is retracted to a volume that is less than half of it's fully deployed volume. This allows the UAV to be transported to any desired field position on a truck or other convenient transportation. The UAV may also be launched from a ship deck. In a further aspect, the flexible deployment of the UAV will allow a single UAV to be used in place of multiple types of UAVs.
Claims22
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), comprising
- a fuselage;
- a telescoping wing assembly comprising a telescoping axis, said wing assembly comprising two wings, each further comprising:
- a plurality of concentric tubular mast segments coaxial with said telescoping axis, said mast segments configured to slide relative to adjacent mast segments;
- a plurality of ribs;
- and
- a plurality of skin segments each attached to at least one rib, said skin segments configured to slide relative to adjacent skin segments and said ribs configured to slide over at least on mast segment;
- and
- a wing root mechanism comprising:
- a vertical rotation pivot operatively coupling said wing assembly to said fuselage by a vertical rotation pin;
- and
- a horizontal rotation pivot operatively coupled to the telescoping wing assembly between the two wings and operatively coupled to the vertical rotation pivot by a horizontal rotation pin oriented perpendicularly to said vertical rotation pin, said vertical rotation pivot allowing said wing assembly to rotate around said vertical rotation pin between a stowed position in which the telescoping axis is parallel to an axis of the fuselage and a deployed position in which the telescoping axis is perpendicular to the axis of the fuselage, said horizontal rotation pivot allowing the wing assembly to tilt as a unit around said horizontal rotation pin into the stowed position.
A fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), comprising:
- a fuselage;
- a telescoping wing assembly having a telescoping axis, said wing assembly comprising two wings each further comprising:
- a plurality of concentric tubular mast segments coaxial with said telescoping axis, said mast segments configured to slide relative to adjacent mast segments;
- a plurality of ribs;
- and
- a plurality of skin segments each attached to at least one rib, said skin segments configured to slide relative to adjacent skin segments and said ribs configured to slide over at least on mast segment;
- a wing root fitting further comprising:
- a vertical rotation pivot operatively coupled to the fuselage by a vertical rotation pin;
- and
- a horizontal rotation pivot operatively coupled to the telescoping wing assembly between the two wings and operatively coupled to the vertical rotation pivot by a horizontal rotation pin oriented perpendicularly to said vertical rotation pin, said vertical rotation pivot allowing the wing assembly to rotate around said vertical rotation pin between a position in which the telescoping axis is parallel to an axis of the fuselage and a position in which the telescoping axis is perpendicular to the axis of the fuselage and said horizontal rotation pivot allowing the wing assembly to tilt around said horizontal rotation pin.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.