An aircraft with a fuselage and with wings connected thereto, wherein a support strut extends between the fuselage and each of the wings, which support strut is connected both to the fuselage and to the wing. The support strut has a hydraulic working cylinder, which can be pressurized with hydraulic fluid in a controlled manner for the purpose of pivoting the wing.

An aircraft wing is provided having a wing leading edge, a wing leading edge slat positioned forwardly of the wing leading edge having an internal duct extending in a spanwise direction of the wing leading edge, a cut-out opening in the wing leading edge, a telescopic tube extending through the cut-out opening and connected to the internal duct of the wing leading edge to establish fluid communication with heated air associated with an aircraft anti-icing system, wherein the telescopic tube is moveable between retracted and extended conditions in response to the wing leading edge slat being moved between slat retraction and deployment positions, respectively, and a shuttering mechanism synchronously connected to the telescopic tube to close the cut-out opening in response to the telescopic tube being moved from the retracted condition to the extended condition thereof.

An aircraft wing is provided having a wing leading edge, a wing leading edge slat positioned forwardly of the wing leading edge having an internal duct extending in a spanwise direction of the wing leading edge, a cut-out opening in the wing leading edge, a telescopic tube extending through the cut-out opening and connected to the internal duct of the wing leading edge to establish fluid communication with heated air associated with an aircraft anti-icing system, wherein the telescopic tube is moveable between retracted and extended conditions in response to the wing leading edge slat being moved between slat retraction and deployment positions, respectively, and a shuttering mechanism synchronously connected to the telescopic tube to close the cut-out opening in response to the telescopic tube being moved from the retracted condition to the extended condition thereof.

An aircraft has a fuselage, and pivot wings pivotally connected with the fuselage, the pivot wings pivoting between a vertical orientation for vertical takeoff, and a horizontal orientation for horizontal flight. Ailerons on each of the pivot wings provide roll control for the aircraft in all phases of flight. A gimbal motor assembly is mounted on the fuselage to adjustably support a motor. An upper rotary pivot free wing is mounted on a mast driven by the motor. A vectored thrust mechanism is provided for forward movement of the aircraft.

An aircraft has a fuselage, and pivot wings pivotally connected with the fuselage, the pivot wings pivoting between a vertical orientation for vertical takeoff, and a horizontal orientation for horizontal flight. Ailerons on each of the pivot wings provide roll control for the aircraft in all phases of flight. A gimbal motor assembly is mounted on the fuselage to adjustably support a motor. An upper rotary pivot free wing is mounted on a mast driven by the motor. A vectored thrust mechanism is provided for forward movement of the aircraft.

The disclosure provides a hybrid aircraft capable of being propelled by a vertical rotor(s) or a horizontal engine(s). The aircraft includes a fuselage defining a horizontal plane, two wings attached to opposite sides of fuselage and oriented substantially parallel to the horizontal plane, an engine(s) configured to generate propulsion in a horizontal direction, and a rotor(s) extending vertically from the fuselage and oriented over a first portion of each wing. Each wing includes a wing frame and an aircraft skin covering at least a portion of the wing frame. When the aircraft is being propelled by the rotor, the aircraft skin covering the first portion of each wing frame is removed or rotated to facilitate airflow through the rotors. When the aircraft is being propelled by the one or more horizontal engines, the aircraft skin may cover the first portion of the wing frame, facilitating aerodynamic lift and stability.

An aircraft lifting surface attached to the rear or frontal end of the aircraft fuselage with a variable sweep angle α in an inboard part and with a constant sweep angle α1 in an outboard part. The aircraft lifting surface can be for example a horizontal tail plane or a vertical tail plane attached to the rear end fuselage or a canard attached to the frontal end fuselage.

A pressurized, fluid-filled channel network embedded in an elastic structure, asymmetrically to the neutral plane, is used to create a deformation field within the structure by the pressurization of the embedded fluidic network, which can be applied in accordance with external forces acting on the structure. The deformation of the structure resulting from the liquid pressure and geometry of the network is related to a continuous deformation-field function. This enables the design of networks creating steady arbitrary deformation fields as well as to eliminate deformation created by external time varying forces, thus increasing the effective rigidity of the beam. By including the effects of the deformation created by the channel network on the beam inertia, the response of the beam to oscillating forces can be modified, enabling the design of channel networks which create pre-defined oscillating deformation patterns in response to external oscillating forces.

A pressurized, fluid-filled channel network embedded in an elastic structure, asymmetrically to the neutral plane, is used to create a deformation field within the structure by the pressurization of the embedded fluidic network, which can be applied in accordance with external forces acting on the structure. The deformation of the structure resulting from the liquid pressure and geometry of the network is related to a continuous deformation-field function. This enables the design of networks creating steady arbitrary deformation fields as well as to eliminate deformation created by external time varying forces, thus increasing the effective rigidity of the beam. By including the effects of the deformation created by the channel network on the beam inertia, the response of the beam to oscillating forces can be modified, enabling the design of channel networks which create pre-defined oscillating deformation patterns in response to external oscillating forces.

A span-loaded, highly flexible flying wing, having horizontal control surfaces mounted aft of the wing on extended beams to form local pitch-control devices. Each of five spanwise wing segments of the wing has one or more motors and photovoltaic arrays, and produces its own lift independent of the other wing segments, to minimize inter-segment loads. Wing dihedral is controlled by separately controlling the local pitch-control devices consisting of a control surface on a boom, such that inboard and outboard wing segment pitch changes relative to each other, and thus relative inboard and outboard lift is varied.