An aircraft includes a wing having an integrated ducted fan. The ducted fan is optionally equipped with inlet louvers and outlet louvers. The inlet louvers and the outlet louvers are adjustable between an open position and a closed position.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes a fuselage, electronics disposed with the fuselage, a heat sink, and a solar shield. The heat sink is thermally connected to the electronics and includes a cooling plate disposed on or extends through an exterior surface of the fuselage. The cooling plate is exposed to an external environment of the UAV to conduct heat from the electronics to the external environment via convection. The solar shield extends over the cooling plate and defines an air scoop within which the cooling plate is disposed. The air scoop directs airflow from the external environment across the cooling plate. The solar shield shades the cooling plate from solar radiation to prevent or reduce solar heating of the cooling plate.

A tailsitter aircraft includes an airframe, a thrust array attached to the airframe and a flight control system. The thrust array includes propulsion assemblies configured to transition the airframe from a forward flight orientation to a VTOL orientation at a conversion rate for an approach to a target ground location in a forward flight-to-VTOL transition phase. The flight control system implements an adaptive transition system including a transition parameter monitoring module configured to monitor parameters including a ground speed and a distance to the target ground location. The adaptive transition system includes a transition adjustment determination module configured to adjust the conversion rate of the airframe from the forward flight orientation to the VTOL orientation based on the ground speed and the distance to the target ground location such that the airframe is vertically aligned with the target ground location in the VTOL orientation of the forward flight-to-VTOL transition phase.

A vehicle includes a propulsion system using one or more impellers as opposed to propellers. The impellers impart circumferential and radial velocity components to the working fluid, which may be air or water. The air is deflected by counter-vortex chambers in a shroud to convert the circumferential and radial velocity to an axial velocity aligned with the axis of rotation of the impeller.

An autonomous thrust vectoring ring wing pod is disclosed. A plurality of distributed propulsion element (thruster) layout within a self-articulating ring wing pod allows the pod to selectively control its thrust vector by controlling each propulsion element in the pod. This arrangement allows autonomous and independent control of the tilting of the ring wing relative to the aircraft. The ring wing pod acts as both a nacelle to house the propulsion elements as well as a lifting surface when in wing-borne flight. The autonomous thrust vectoring ring wing pod also provides superior aircraft attitude control in wing-borne flight, thus negating the need for conventional surface controls.

A flight control arrangement for a hybrid aircraft includes a fixed-wing flight (F/W) control module and vertical takeoff/landing flight (VTOL) control module. The F/W control module is an integrated component having a respective network interface connected to an aircraft data network via which it provides fixed-wing control output to network-connected fixed-wing flight components including one or more horizontal-thrust components. The VTOL control module is also an integrated component having a respective network interface to the aircraft data network via which the VTOL control module (1) observes flight status as reflected in network messages originated by the fixed-wing flight control module, and (2) based on the observed flight status, generates VTOL control output to network-connected VTOL flight components including one or more vertical-thrust components, to control VTOL flight as well as transitions to and from fixed-wing flight.

A landing platform for an unmanned aerial vehicle, including a plurality of substantially funnel-shaped centering housings configured to cooperate with a corresponding plurality of projections of the aerial vehicle for reaching a predetermined landing position. The platform can include a mechanism for recharging the battery of the aerial vehicle and/or with an arrangement for serial data transfer.

An electrically powered rotary-wing aircraft with a first predetermined number of thrust producing units and a second predetermined number of batteries. Each one of the first predetermined number of thrust producing units may include a rotor, and an electrical drive unit with at least two electric motors. Each battery of the second predetermined number of batteries is coupled to at most one electric motor of the at least two electric motors of at least one of the first predetermined number of thrust producing units, and each electric motor of the at least one of the first predetermined number of thrust producing units is coupled to at most one of the second predetermined number of batteries.

An aircraft capable of vertical take-off and landing comprises a fuselage, at least one processor carried by the fuselage and a pair of aerodynamic, lift-generating wings extending from the fuselage. A plurality of vectoring rotors are rotatably carried by the fuselage so as to be rotatable between a substantially vertical configuration relative to the fuselage for vertical take-off and landing and a substantially horizontal configuration relative to the fuselage for horizontal flight. The vectoring rotors are unsupported by the first pair of wings. The wings may be modular and removably connected to the fuselage and configured to be interchangeable with an alternate pair of wings. A cargo container may be secured to the underside of the fuselage, and the cargo container may be modular and interchangeable with an alternate cargo container.

An apparatus providing continuous tilt and variable pitch for rotors on a fixed wing VTOL aircraft. An actuator on a housing rotates a first pivot point on a motor mount to tilt a motor to horizontal and vertical positions. Simultaneously, an actuator on the motor mount rotates a fork on a second pivot point on the motor mount to adjust the pitch of the rotors attached to a free end of the motor's drive shaft. A lower swash plate on the drive shaft is attached to the fork. An upper swash plate on the drive shaft is attached to the rotors. The swash plates are attached to each other with a shaft bushing attached to a shaft ball bearing. The shaft bushing allows both swash plates to move linearly along the shaft when the fork is rotated. The shaft ball bearing allows the upper swash plate to rotate with the drive shaft while the lower swash plate remains stationary.