Described is a method of delivery for cargo or goods from an aerial vehicle (mothership) to a designated ground delivery location via the use of a direct air shipping package. For example, an aerial vehicle may be an airplane or helicopter that remains at altitude with a package stowed for deployment. As the mothership travels in the vicinity of the designated location the package flight control computer (flight controller) calculates a preferred travel trajectory based upon the aerodynamic properties of the package and location relative to the designated delivery location such as a small delivery pad located on a patio of a home. When the mothership transits through a calculated release point the package disengages the mothership. As the package descends it may increase accuracy relative to the designated delivery location by altering aerodynamic properties to maintain the preferred travel trajectory and decreasing landing zone size requirements and increasing precision of delivery. To reduce the impact force at landing the designated delivery location and/or the package may contain a net, airbag, parachute or similar device to provide a suitably soft landing suitable for commercial home delivery.

A radio controlled (RC) vehicle includes a receiver that is coupled to receive an RF signal from a remote control device, the RF signal containing command data in accordance with a first coordinate system, wherein the first coordinate system is from a perspective of the remote control device. A motion sensing module generates motion data based on the motion of the RC vehicle. A processing module transforms the command data into control data in accordance with a second coordinate system, wherein the second coordinate system is from a perspective of the RC vehicle. A plurality of control devices control the motion of the RC vehicle based on the control data.

There are provided an actuator that can be reduced in weight as compared with a related art while alleviating an impact at an activation, a safety apparatus that ejects an ejected object, and an aerial vehicle including the safety apparatus. A safety apparatus 100 includes an actuator 1, a push-up member 15 that is pushed up in one direction by the actuator 1, an ejected object 16 that is pushed up while being supported by the push-up member 15, a bottomed cylindrical container 18, and a lid 21 that closes an opening end of the container 18. The actuator 1 includes a piston member 10, a cylinder 14 that accommodates the piston member 10 and is provided with a bore 13 through which the piston member 10 protrudes outward at the time of activation, a base 2 to which one end of the cylinder 14 is caulked and fixed and that is attached to a center of a bottom inside the container 18, and a gas generator 17 as a power source for moving the piston member 10 in the cylinder 14.

Cloud-based systems and methods are provided for assisting recovery or salvage operations for an aircraft or other vehicle encountering an anomalous condition. An exemplary method involves obtaining status information indicative of a current state of the vehicle en route to a destination, determining an alternative destination for the vehicle different from the destination based at least in part on the current state of the vehicle and one or more salvage criteria associated with a respective salvage strategy, determining an alternative route to the alternative destination for the respective salvage strategy based at least in part on the current state of the vehicle, calculating one or more recovery performance metrics associated with the respective salvage strategy, and providing graphical indicia of the respective one or more recovery performance metrics associated with the respective salvage strategies of the plurality of salvage strategies.