Launch and recovery system for unmanned aerial vehicles
First Claim
1. In combination, an aircraft and a capturing apparatus adapted for capturing the aircraft,the aircraft comprisinga) a hook attached to an outboard portion of a wing of said aircraft, said hook comprising an inboardly-extending forward part defining a forward side of an outboardly-extending passageway, the passageway having an inboardly-facing mouth, said hook being constructed and proportioned to intercept an arrestment line and reliably and releasably attach said aircraft to said arrestment line with a line retaining mechanism, andb) lateral deflecting structure constructed and arranged to reliably deflect the arrestment line laterally into engagement and attachment with the hook, the lateral deflecting structure comprising a leading edge of the wing of said aircraft,the capturing apparatus comprisingc) the arrestment line, andd) a flexible support structure supported by a base, the flexible support structure being constructed to absorb energy by bending without breaking, the flexible support structure supporting the arrestment line across a flight path of the aircraft in a generally vertical orientation for capture of the hook, said support for said arrestment line being kept clear of the intended flight path of the aircraft,the capturing apparatus being so constructed and proportioned that elastic deformation of components of the capturing apparatus absorbs most of the energy during arrestment of the forward velocity of the aircraft.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method of launching and retrieving a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) (10). The preferred method of launch involves carrying the UAV (10) up to altitude using a parasail (8) similar to that used to carry tourists aloft. The UAV is dropped and picks up enough airspeed in the dive to perform a pull-up into level controlled flight. The preferred method of recovery is for the UAV to fly into and latch onto the parasail tow line (4) or cables hanging off the tow line and then be winched back down to the boat (2).
55 Citations
31 Claims
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1. In combination, an aircraft and a capturing apparatus adapted for capturing the aircraft,
the aircraft comprising a) a hook attached to an outboard portion of a wing of said aircraft, said hook comprising an inboardly-extending forward part defining a forward side of an outboardly-extending passageway, the passageway having an inboardly-facing mouth, said hook being constructed and proportioned to intercept an arrestment line and reliably and releasably attach said aircraft to said arrestment line with a line retaining mechanism, and b) lateral deflecting structure constructed and arranged to reliably deflect the arrestment line laterally into engagement and attachment with the hook, the lateral deflecting structure comprising a leading edge of the wing of said aircraft, the capturing apparatus comprising c) the arrestment line, and d) a flexible support structure supported by a base, the flexible support structure being constructed to absorb energy by bending without breaking, the flexible support structure supporting the arrestment line across a flight path of the aircraft in a generally vertical orientation for capture of the hook, said support for said arrestment line being kept clear of the intended flight path of the aircraft, the capturing apparatus being so constructed and proportioned that elastic deformation of components of the capturing apparatus absorbs most of the energy during arrestment of the forward velocity of the aircraft.
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21. In combination, an aircraft and a capturing apparatus adapted for capturing the aircraft,
the aircraft comprising a) a hook attached to an outboard portion of a wing of said aircraft, said hook comprising an inboardly-extending forward part defining a forward side of an outboardly-extending passageway, the passageway having an inboardly-facing mouth, said hook being constructed and proportioned to intercept an arrestment line and reliably and releasably attach said aircraft to said arrestment line with a line retaining mechanism, and b) lateral deflecting structure constructed and arranged to reliably deflect the arrestment line laterally into engagement and attachment with the hook, the lateral deflecting structure comprising a leading edge of the wing of said aircraft, the capturing apparatus comprising c) the arrestment line, and d) an arrestment line support structure supported by a base, the arrestment line being designed to deflect when contacted by said aircraft, the arrestment line being suspended at its upper end by said support structure across a flight path of the aircraft in an orientation which is generally perpendicular to said leading edge of said wing at an intended point of interception of said aircraft, and being connected at its lower end to the base, said support structure being kept clear of the intended flight path of the aircraft and extending down to said base on only one side of the intended flight path.
Specification