Drone deployment apparatus for accommodating aircraft fuselages

• US 10,578,398 B1
• Filed: 10/22/2018
• Issued: 03/03/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Michael S. Bradbury
• Original Assignee: Michael S. Bradbury
• Inventors: Bradbury, Michael Sean
• Primary Examiner(s): Semick, Joshua T
• Application Number:
  US16/166,835
• Time in Patent Office: 498 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 7/08 Arrangements of rocket launchers or releasing meansrocket launchers per se, e.g. rocket pods, F41F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/25 Fixed-wing aircraft VTOL aircraft B64U10/20
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 50/15 using combustion exhausts other than turbojets or turbofans, e.g. using rockets, ramjets, scramjets or pulse-reactors
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 70/20 for releasing or capturing UAVs in flight by another aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 80/70 in containers B64U80/60 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 80/82 Airborne vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: F41F 3/065 Rocket pods, i.e. detachable containers for launching a plurality of rockets
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 10/64 of fins
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 10/661 using several transversally acting rocket motors, each motor containing an individual propellant charge, e.g. solid charge
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 12/06 with hard or heavy core; Kinetic energy penetrators F42B12/16, F42B12/74 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 12/60 the submissiles being ejected radially
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 12/62 the submissiles being ejected parallel to the longitudinal axis of the projectile
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 14/08 Sabots filled with propulsive charges; Removing sabots by combustion of pyrotechnic elements or by propulsive-gas pressure arrangements on barrels for removing sabots from projectiles F41A21/46
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 15/10 Missiles having a trajectory only in the air

Abstract

The present invention is capable of containing, transporting, and deploying a plurality of kinetic energy impact drones capable of aerial navigation and swarm formations. The apparatus has a circular profile to accommodate fitting within the inherently circular profile of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) fuselage as well as to allow high rate of drone deployment.

Claims

1. A superposed drone deployment apparatus for unmanned air vehicles comprising:

a. a housing having an elongated cylindrical shape, the housing comprising a plurality of deployment tubes oriented in a radial configuration, each of said deployment tubes comprising a tube bottom oriented towards the central longitudinal axis of said housing and a muzzle oriented at a circumference of said housing, and

b. a plurality of aerial drone units positioned in each of said deployment tubes forming a superposed stack of aerial drone units, each said superposed stack of aerial drone units comprising an innermost drone unit adjacent the tube bottom and an outermost drone unit adjacent the muzzle, each said aerial drone unit comprising a propellant charge capable of expelling the drone unit through said muzzle, whereby said drone units deploy radially and uniformly outward from the circumference of said housing.

2. The superposed drone deployment apparatus of claim 1 wherein each said aerial drone unit further comprises a kinetic energy penetrator segment disposed at a fore end thereof, a rocket motor and rocket motor nozzle disposed at an aft end thereof, a means for rapid trajectory deviations, and a means for exchanging data with an unmanned aerial vehicle and/or other drone units.

3. A done deployment apparatus cluster comprising a plurality of the superposed drone deployment apparatuses of claim 1, the plurality of superposed drone deployment apparatuses linearly connected such that central longitudinal axis of each drone deployment apparatus is coincident with a common axis.