The aircraft thrust control system comprises a central power unit and peripheral power units. The central power unit comprises upper and lower propellers arranged one above the other and adapted to rotate in opposite directions, while propellers of the peripheral power units are located outside the aerodynamic operating range of the central power unit propellers.

A multi-mode unmanned aerial vehicle includes an elongated fuselage, a right and left fixed wing extending from a respective right and left side of the elongated fuselage, a right and left tilt wing attached at a first side to a free end of the respective right and left fixed wing, a right and left duct attached to a second side of the respective right and left tilt wing, a right and left winglet attached to the respective right and left duct opposite to the right and left tilt wing, a tilt tail located within a curved guide slot at a rear end of the elongated fuselage, a rear duct attached to the tilt tail, a tilting mechanism, and an integrated autonomous flight control system.

The aircraft comprises a fuselage defining a fuselage main axis. The fuselage comprises a docking system for fixing removable nacelles. The aircraft has wings equipped with tilting actuators for rotating wings about rotation axes parallel to the fuselage main axis and at least six propellers mechanically connected to the fuselage. The aircraft also has at least one cryo-hydrogen tank and at least one fuel cell for supplying power to the propellers, and

A capacitor for supplying power to the propellers, charged by at least one fuel cell. This capacitor stores electrical energy greater than the energy needed by all the propellers for ten seconds of hovering flight. Each propeller is equipped with a tilting actuator for rotating the propeller about a rotation axis making an angle of less than 45 degrees with a plane perpendicular to the fuselage main axis. The fuselage having a forward and a rear portion defining a forward to rear order of the propellers, in cruise flight, the two forward propellers are activated to provide vertical thrust, the intermediate propellers between the forward and rearmost propellers are not activated and the two rearmost propellers are activated to provide horizontal thrust.

A propeller includes a hub coaxially surrounding a longitudinal axis. A ring shroud coaxially surrounds the longitudinal axis and is spaced radially from the hub. At least one propeller blade is fixedly attached to both the hub and ring shroud and extends radially therebetween for mutual rotation therewith. At least one stub blade has a first stub end radially spaced from a second stub end. The first stub end is fixedly attached to a selected one of the hub and ring shroud. The second stub end is cantilevered from the first stub end and is radially interposed between the first stub end and the selected one of the hub and ring shroud.

Concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to intelligent drone traffic management via a radio access network (“RAN”). As disclosed herein, a RAN node, such as an eNodeB, can receive, from a drone, a flight configuration. The flight configuration can include a drone ID and a drone route. The RAN node can determine whether capacity is available in an airspace associated with the RAN node. In response to determining that capacity is available in the airspace associated with the RAN node, the RAN node can add the drone ID to a queue of drones awaiting use of the airspace associated with the RAN node. When the drone ID is next in the queue of drones awaiting use of the airspace associated with the RAN node, the RAN node can instruct the drone to fly through at least a portion of the airspace in accordance with the drone route.

A method of controlling an overly determined actuator system that has a first number of actuators (α.sub.i) which is greater than a second number of the actuators needed to perform a predetermined physical task. The method includes: automatically controlling the first number of actuators by a control unit (CU) for jointly performing the predetermined physical task; repeatedly checking a functional state of the first number of actuators to detect an actuator failure of any one thereof; in case of any detected actuator failure, generating at least one emergency signal (EM) representative of an adapted physical task to be performed by a remaining number of the actuators. The emergency signal is generated based on kinematics of the actuator system, on known physical capacities at least of the remaining actuators, and optionally on a computational performance model of the actuator system. The adapted physical task includes activating each of the remaining actuators below a predetermined threshold of maximum physical load on a respective actuator and activating the ensemble of remaining actuators in a way to prevent further damage to the actuator system. An emergency control system and an aircraft are also provided.

A modular Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) has first and second flight configurations, and includes an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) parent module and a plurality of UAV child modules. The parent module may have a fuselage, forward and aft wings connected to the fuselage, and a first plurality of flight propulsion devices. The child modules have a corresponding second plurality of flight propulsion devices. Each child module docks wingtip-to-wingtip with the parent module or an adjacent edge of a child module using the docking mechanisms. The child modules undock and separate from the forward wing and each other, and achieve controlled flight independently of the parent module while in the second flight configuration. A method for controlling the modular UAS is also disclosed.

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

Multi-rotor rotorcraft comprise a fuselage, and at least four rotor assemblies operatively supported by and spaced-around the fuselage. Each of the at least four rotor assemblies defines a spin volume and a spin diameter. Some multi-rotor rotorcraft further comprise at least one rotor guard that is fixed relative to the fuselage, that borders the spin volume of at least one of the at least four rotor assemblies, and that is configured to provide a visual indication of the spin volume of the at least one of the at least four rotor assemblies. Various configurations of rotor guards are disclosed.

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.