Aspects relate to airplanes having a blended wing body. A blended wing body may include a fuselage and a port wing and a starboard wing continuously coupled to the fuselage and a nose section. A midship control surface may be disposed on a trailing edge of the blended wing body and centered between the port wing and the starboard wing.

Methods and systems for longitudinal control of aircraft during flight are disclosed. One method comprises receiving a commanded normal acceleration of the aircraft and computing a target pitch rate for the aircraft based on the commanded normal acceleration. The target pitch rate is used in a control technique for controlling one or more flight control surfaces of the aircraft to achieve the target pitch rate for the aircraft. The control technique can include (e.g., incremental) nonlinear dynamics inversion.

A flow body for an aircraft includes a skin having a first flow surface, having a flow influencing section with at least one first layer, at least one separator layer, at least one third layer, and at least one base layer. The first layer includes lithiated carbon fibers embedded into a matrix to form a negative electrode. The third layer includes carbon fibers with an electrode active material coating to form a positive electrode. The separator layer includes a non-conductive material for electrically isolating the first layer and the third layer from each other. The flow influencing section is configured for selectively raising a region of the arrangement of first layer, separator layer and third layer from the base layer upon application of a voltage between the first and third layers to form a bump on the flow body.

Technologies for providing blended wing body aircraft control surfaces are described herein. In some examples, one or more of the control surfaces have angular configurations that reduce the formation of air vortexes when in upward or downward configurations, thereby reducing the drag on the aircraft when the control surfaces are being used.

A pressure vessel includes at least one pair of side bulkheads spaced apart from each other. In addition, the pressure vessel includes at least one substantially flat panel having at least one panel span extending between the pair of side bulkheads and being in non-contacting proximity to the side bulkheads. The panel and the side bulkheads collectively form at least a portion of a structural assembly enclosing the pressure vessel. The pressure vessel also includes a plurality of panel braces coupling the side bulkheads to the panel at a plurality of panel attachment nodes distributed along the panel span. At least two of the panel braces have a different axial stiffness configured to result in the outward deflection of the panel attachment nodes by substantially equal deflection amounts when the panel is subjected to an out-of-plane pressure load during internal pressurization of the pressure vessel.

An aircraft includes electrical components and a ducted fan with a cooling coil. The aircraft is designed to discharge heat from the electrical components to the cooling coil.

Aspects related to aircraft for commercial air travel and methods of manufacture. An aircraft includes a blended wing body, a single deck located within the blended wing body, wherein the single deck additionally includes a passenger compartment located in a lateral middle portion of the blended wing body and at least a cargo store located laterally outside the passenger compartment, and a landing gear, wherein the landing gear includes at least a nose gear located substantially forward of the single deck and at least a main gear located substantially aft of the single deck, wherein one or more of the at least a nose gear and the at least a main gear occupies a gear housing that overlaps with a plane coincident with at least a portion of the single deck.

An arrangement of a structural element for an aerospace vehicle and a battery set. The structural element extends along a longitudinal direction and has a main web, a first flange and a second flange. The flanges extend away from the main web and are defined by flange edges extending along the longitudinal direction. The first flange, the second flange and the main web form a U-shaped profile defining a cavity. The battery set includes a baseplate and at least one battery on the baseplate. The structural element and the battery set are formed such that the baseplate can be releasably attached to the structural element. The baseplate extends between flange edges and the battery is received in the cavity when the battery set is mounted to the structural element. Further, an aerospace vehicle including such an arrangement, a structural element for an aerospace vehicle and a battery set are disclosed.

An aircraft (1) comprising a fuselage (4), an anhedral rearwardly-swept leading wing (5) for generating lift connected to an upper portion of the fuselage, and a dihedral forwardly-swept trailing wing (7) for generating lift attached to a lower portion of the fuselage. The trailing wing (7) is arranged to be vertically lower than the leading wing (5) in flight. The leading wing (5) and trailing wing (7) are blended together at their wingtips, forming a common wingtip (20), such that the underside surface (16) of the leading wing (5) forms a generally continuous and smoothly transitioning surface with the upper surface (22) of the trailing wing (7) so as to form a vortex guide surface (23) such that vortex air flow from the leading wing (5) is guided by the vortex guide surface (23) onto, or into the path of, the trailing wing (7).

Various embodiments of systems, apparatus, and/or methods are described for enhanced responsiveness in responding to an emergency situation using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones). Drones are fully autonomous in that they are operated without human intervention from a pilot, an operator, or other personnel. The disclosed drone utilizes movable access doors to provide the capability of vertically takeoff and landing. The drone also includes an emergency recovery system including a mechanism to deploy a parachute in an event of a failure of the on-board autopilot. Also disclosed herein is a drone port that provides an IR-based docking mechanism for precision landing of the drone, with a very low margin of error. Additionally, the drone port includes pads that provide automatic charge to the drone's batteries by contact-based charging via the drone's landing gear legs.