An aircraft has a fuselage, an engine disposed within the fuselage, a rotatable wing disposed above the fuselage and selectively rotatable about a wing rotation axis, and a plurality of interconnect driveshafts disposed within the rotatable wing, and at least one drive system component that is connected between the engine and the interconnect driveshaft is disposed along the wing rotation axis.

Heavier-than-air, aircraft having flapping wings, e.g., ornithopters, where angular orientation control is effected by variable differential sweep angles of deflection of the flappable wings in the course of sweep angles of travel and/or the control of variable wing membrane tension.

Herein is disclosed an unmanned aerial vehicle light flash comprising a support structure; a camera coupled to the support structure and configured to take a photograph; one or more processors coupled to the support structure and configured to control a predetermined flight plan of the unmanned aerial vehicle, control the camera, generate or process a synchronization signal to synchronize a light flash to be generated by a further unmanned aerial vehicle with a taking of the photograph by the camera; a transceiver coupled to the support structure and configured to transmit or receive the synchronization signal to or from the further unmanned aerial vehicle.

Heavier-than-air, aircraft having flapping wings, e.g., ornithopters, where angular orientation control is effected by variable differential sweep angles of deflection of the flappable wings in the course of sweep angles of travel and/or the control of variable wing membrane tension.

A multi-rotor aerial vehicle comprises at least two rotors, a controller, a power supply having an output shaft, a shaft-driven hydraulic machine coupled to the output shaft and at least two rotor-driving hydraulic machines coupled to respective rotors. At least one of the hydraulic machines is an electronically commutated hydraulic machine in which displacement of hydraulic fluid through each working chamber is regulated by electronically controllable valves, during each cycle of working chamber volume, in phased relationship to cycles of working chamber volume. The controller controls the electronically controllable valves of the electronically commutated hydraulic machines to independently control the rotation of the rotors. The shaft-driven hydraulic machine may be an electronically commutated machine with a plurality of independent outputs, which independently drive the rotor-driving hydraulic machines. The rotor-driving hydraulic machines may be electronically commutated machines the displacement of which is independently controlled to independently drive the rotors.

A flapping wing driving apparatus includes at least one crank gear capstan rotatably coupled to a crank gear, the at least one crank gear capstan disposed radially offset from a center of rotation of the crank gear; a first wing capstan coupled to a first wing, the first wing capstan having a first variable-radius drive pulley portion; and a first drive linking member configured to drive the first wing capstan, the first drive linking member windably coupled between the first variable-radius drive pulley portion and one of the at least one crank gear capstan; wherein the first wing capstan is configured to non-constantly, angularly rotate responsive to a constant angular rotation of the crank gear.

The invention relates to a drone comprising: two contra-rotating annular propellers (2, 4) defining a plane therebetween which is referred to as an equatorial plane and is assumed to be horizontal, means for driving the propellers, a load arranged below the equatorial plane, and means (20) for moving the load relative to the equatorial plane, an enclosure referred to as an upper enclosure (6) filled with a gas or a gaseous mixture having a density of less than 1 and arranged essentially above the equatorial plane, and an enclosure referred to as a lower enclosure (8) filled with a gas or a gaseous mixture having a density of less than 1 and arranged essentially below the equatorial plane, the load being placed inside the lower enclosure (8).

A propulsion system includes a motor, the motor disposed at a center portion of the propulsion system, the motor further including a rotor shaft. The system includes a splitter gearbox coupled to the rotor shaft, the splitter gearbox further comprising at least one splitter output shaft. The system includes at least one continuously variable transmission (CVT), the CVT coupled to the splitter output shaft, the CVTs further including a driveshaft. The system includes at least one bevel gearbox, the bevel gearbox comprising a bevel gearbox input shaft and a bevel gearbox output shaft, the bevel gearbox input shaft disposed parallel to the horizontal plane and the bevel gearbox output shaft disposed at an angle to the bevel gearbox input shaft, wherein the bevel gearbox input shaft is coupled to the driveshaft. The system includes at least one propeller coupled to the bevel gearbox output shaft.

An aircraft operable to transition between a forward flight mode and a vertical takeoff and landing flight mode. The aircraft includes an airframe having first and second wings. A plurality of propulsion assemblies is attached to the airframe with each of the propulsion assemblies including a nacelle and a tail assembly having at least one active aerosurface. A flight control system is operable to independently control each of the propulsion assemblies. For each of the propulsion assemblies, the tail assembly is rotatable relative to the nacelle such that the active aerosurface has a first orientation generally parallel to the wings and a second orientation generally perpendicular to the wings.

A collapsible flying device is provided having a housing including first and second housing sections forming an enclosure, and a motorized assembly that includes a drive motor and a drive shaft driven by the drive motor. The drive shaft matingly receives the first housing section and is coupled to the second housing section, wherein operation of the drive motor drives the drive shaft to move the first housing section from a closed position adjacent the second housing section to an open position spaced from the second housing section. A rotor hub is rotatingly driven by the drive motor. At least two rotor blades are coupled thereto and positioned within the enclosure in a collapsed position when the first housing section is in the closed position, and extend beyond the enclosure in an expanded position when the first housing section is in the open position.