An aircraft is disclosed having a structure at least part of which is capable of generating aerodynamic lift. A body having a mass is movably mounted to a portion of the structure by an active support. The active support includes an actuator to move the body relative to the portion of the structure, and a controller for controlling movement of the actuator in response to a dynamic input. The active support provides a range of movement for the body in at least one degree of freedom. The actuator moves the body across the entire range of movement in that one degree of freedom in a time period of less than 3 seconds. The actuator moves the body sufficiently rapidly to generate an inertial force that is equal to or greater than any aerodynamic force generated by the body during that movement of the body. The active support may be used to reduce loads on the aircraft structure.

An aircraft is disclosed having a structure at least part of which is capable of generating aerodynamic lift. A body having a mass is movably mounted to a portion of the structure by an active support. The active support includes an actuator to move the body relative to the portion of the structure, and a controller for controlling movement of the actuator in response to a dynamic input. The active support provides a range of movement for the body in at least one degree of freedom. The actuator moves the body across the entire range of movement in that one degree of freedom in a time period of less than 3 seconds. The actuator moves the body sufficiently rapidly to generate an inertial force that is equal to or greater than any aerodynamic force generated by the body during that movement of the body. The active support may be used to reduce loads on the aircraft structure.

A wing (5) for an aircraft (1) and include a fixed wing (7), a high lift system (9) including a high lift surface (27) movably mounted to the fixed wing (7), and a high lift actuation system (29) for moving the high lift surface (27) relative to the fixed wing (7) between a retracted position and at least one deployed position, a foldable wing tip portion (11) mounted to the fixed wing (7) pivotally about an axis of rotation (35) between an extended position and a folded position, a tip actuation unit (13) for moving the foldable wing tip portion (11) between the extended position and the folded position. The object to provide a simple, cost-efficient and light-weight wing, is achieved in that the high lift actuation system (29) is drivingly coupled to the tip actuation unit (13) to provide power to the tip actuation unit (13)

A linear actuator includes: a screw shaft; a nut assembly mounted to the screw shaft to move linearly along the screw shaft as the screw shaft is rotated; and a motor to rotate the screw shaft, wherein the motor is an axial flux motor.

A system of fall back flight control configured for use in aircraft includes an input control configured to receive a pilot input and generate a control datum. System includes a flight controller communicatively coupled to the input control and configured to receive the control datum and generate an output datum. The system includes the actuator having a primary mode in which the actuator is configured to move the at least a portion of the aircraft as a function of the output datum and a fall back mode in which the actuator is configured to move the at least a portion of the aircraft as a function of the control datum. The actuator configured to receive the control datum, receive the output datum, detect a loss of communication with the flight controller, and select the fall back mode as a function of the detection.

A device including an acquisition module for acquiring current parameters of the aircraft, a computational module for computing a current load factor of the aircraft, a computational module for computing a minimum load factor, a computational module for computing the difference between the current load factor and the minimum load factor, and an acoustic emission module for emitting a sound signal, the level of which increases gradually as a function of time when the difference between the current load factor and the minimum load factor is less than zero.

The invention relates to a flight management assembly (1) comprising two guidance chains (2A, 2B), each one provided with a flight management system (3A, 3B), each of said flight management systems (3A, 3B) carrying out at least one calculation of guidance instructions for the aircraft, the flight management assembly (1) also comprising at least one monitoring unit (4A, 4B) designed to monitor the guidance instructions calculated by the two flight management systems (3A, 3B) in such a way as to be able to detect and identify a defective flight management system, the monitoring unit (4A, 4B) comprising a monitoring device (5) which verifies particularly whether the following three conditions are met: a first derivative of extrapolated cross tracks is positive; a second derivative of extrapolated cross tracks is positive; and extrapolated positions of the aircraft are on the same side of an active segment of the flight plan followed by the aircraft as the current position of the aircraft.

A flap actuator for adjusting the orientation of a flap or the like, the actuator. The actuator includes: a static arcuate member having a radius of curvature; a piezoelectric motor biased to be in operable contact with the static arcuate member; a housing for housing the piezoelectric motor; and a flap orientation shaft operably connecting between the housing and the flap. The distance between the shaft and the static arcuate member is essentially equal to the radius of curvature of the static arcuate member.

A flap actuator for adjusting the orientation of a flap or the like, the actuator. The actuator includes: a static arcuate member having a radius of curvature; a piezoelectric motor biased to be in operable contact with the static arcuate member; a housing for housing the piezoelectric motor; and a flap orientation shaft operably connecting between the housing and the flap. The distance between the shaft and the static arcuate member is essentially equal to the radius of curvature of the static arcuate member.

A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft (10) comprises a fuselage (24) first and second forward wings (20, 22) and first and second rearward wings (30, 32), each wing having a fixed leading edge (25, 35) and a trailing control surface (50) which is pivotal about a generally horizontal axis. Electric rotors (60) are mounted to the wings (20, 22, 30, 32), the electric rotors (60) being pivotal with the trailing control surface (50) between a first position in which each rotor (60) has a generally vertical axis of rotation, and a second position in which each rotor (60) has a generally horizontal axis of rotation; wherein at least one of the wings (20, 22, 30, 32) has a first and a second electric rotor (60) which are each mounted having non-parallel axes of rotation so that the thrust lines of the first and second electric rotors are different.