Foldable Drones for Portable Operations

Forward-swept wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a variable body structure that allows compact storage and launch from ships. The UAV has a canard-type layout with full-motion canards up front and foldable forward-swept wings on the sides. The wings can fold inward by up to 180 degrees for compact storage. The vertical tails also fold. This deformable body reduces the wingspan and height when parked, allowing more UAVs to fit on ships.

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A folding mechanism for the wings of a fixed-wing drone that allows compact storage and transportation while maintaining aerodynamic efficiency during flight. The mechanism involves a hinge that connects the wing root to the fuselage. The hinge has a latch mechanism that secures the wing in the extended position during flight. When landing, the latch can be released to allow the wing to fold up against the fuselage for storage and transportation. The latch prevents the wing from folding during flight to maintain aerodynamic shape.

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Folding drone with variable center of gravity to improve flight performance. The drone has retractable wings that can slide along the fuselage to adjust the wingspan. This allows optimizing the wing area and center of gravity location for different flight conditions. When the wings are retracted, the drone is compact for transportation. The wings slide out during launch to increase wingspan. A mechanism inside the fuselage slides the wings and torsion springs rotate them out. The wings retract back into the fuselage for landing.

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A folding unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with forward-swept wings that can fold for compact storage and transportation. The UAV has a fuselage, main wings swept forward, and a wing between the main wings and tail. The main wings fold back against the fuselage using reset and limiting mechanisms. The mechanisms have rotation axes, limiters, and reset pieces. When folded, an external force overcomes the reset piece force, allowing rotation. When unfolded, the limiters expand and reset pieces return the wings.

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Foldable wings for drones that enable compact storage and transportation without disassembly. The wings have a folding mechanism between the main wing body and a detachable folding section. The folding section telescopes and rotates to fold up against the main wing body. This allows the wings to be quickly and easily folded by just manipulating the telescoping and rotating components. It avoids the need for disassembling and reassembling the wings during storage and transportation.

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A collapsible, vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with improved aerodynamics and transportability. The UAV has a fuselage with wings, payload bay, and collapsible winglets. Engines are mounted on the wingtips instead of the tail. This allows the UAV to take off and land vertically like a drone, but also fly efficiently like a traditional aircraft. The collapsible winglets reduce size for transportation and concealment. The payload bay can be detached for portability. This enables quick, inconspicuous assembly and launch from small spaces.

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An aerodynamic layout and control method for a long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that integrates a multi-rotor and fixed-wing aircraft for improved efficiency and versatility compared to separate UAVs. The UAV has a folding wing design that allows the wings to be stowed parallel to the body when launched vertically like a multi-rotor. This prevents roll and vibration issues during vertical takeoff. The wings unfold for forward flight like a fixed-wing UAV. The multi-rotor provides vertical lift and maneuverability, while the fixed wings provide endurance. The UAV can switch between vertical and forward flight modes. Control is achieved by adjusting thrust on the rotors and wing-mounted motors for six-degrees-of-freedom motion in hover and roll/pitch adjustment in forward flight.

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Foldable drone wing design that allows compact storage and transportation of foldable drones without sacrificing flight stability or making the folding process overly complicated. The wing has an inner wing attached to the drone body and an outer wing that can fold inwards. The folding mechanism uses locking screws and plates to secure the wings together when closed. When extended, the screws and plates allow the wings to move freely. The inner wing has screws that slide into through-holes on the connecting plate. The outer wing has a screw that engages a recess on the plate. This allows the wings to lock together when closed and detach when extended.

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An aircraft design with foldable wings that improve takeoff and landing performance for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The wings have a rotating section that can pivot outward from the body. This allows the wings to fold inwards during VTOL operations to reduce the projected area and air resistance. It also allows the wings to rotate during descent to generate lift in the opposite direction to counteract airflow effects. This improves vertical descent stability and control compared to fixed wings. The wings unfold for forward flight to provide lift and maneuverability.

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A drone with folding wings that can be quickly launched and taken off in confined spaces. The drone has a compact form factor with foldable wings that can be stored and transported easily. The wings fold inward during storage and launch, reducing the drone's size for portability. This allows the drone to be launched in confined spaces where it may not have enough room to fully extend the wings. The drone can then rapidly ascend with the folded wings, minimizing air resistance and reaching optimal launch height. The wings unfold mid-flight, providing full flight capability.

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Self-locking mechanism for folding wings of fixed-wing drones that automatically unfold and fold during takeoff and landing. The mechanism uses self-locking components installed on the folding joints between sections of the wings. When the drone accelerates, airflow forces the wings to unfold. The self-locking components convert the forces into horizontal thrust to close the joints. When the drone is airborne, the self-locking components provide stability. During landing, reversing the airflow forces closes the wings. The mechanism allows compact storage, easy launching, and avoids manual wing folding.

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Folding component, wing folding structure, folding wing, and wing-body integrated drone with reliable folding mechanism. The folding component is a concave hexagonal honeycomb structure with elastic reset members at the corners. It folds by shrinking angles between the hexagon sides. The wings have this folding structure between sections to fold vertically and horizontally. The wings can also fold by heating the skin to soften and lift the wings. This allows more folding shapes compared to just wingtips. The folding wings are used on a drone body to switch between high and low speed flight by folding the wings for compactness at low speeds. The folding drone can have a vertical takeoff central rotor and tilt rotors on the wings for transition flight.

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A vertical takeoff and landing fixed-wing UAV with folding wings to combine the benefits of vertical takeoff and landing with efficient fixed-wing flight. The UAV has a canard layout with a forward-swept main wing and a smaller canard wing at the nose. The main wing folds along its root using a servo mechanism. This allows vertical takeoff and landing using the folded wing configuration, then unfolds for efficient fixed-wing flight. The canard provides pitch control and lift during both modes. A single set of propellers can provide thrust for both vertical and horizontal flight. The folding wings eliminate dead weight during fixed-wing flight while still providing vertical lift capability.

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A hybrid unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with adjustable wingspan for both high and low speed flight. The UAV has a rotating wing assembly that can pivot relative to the fuselage. The wing assembly consists of inflatable telescoping wings at the ends and a fixed center wing. The telescoping wings have cavities and folding structures that allow them to extend or retract. This adjusts the wingspan length. The inflation/deflation system and telescopic mechanism enable the UAV to have a compact wingspan for low speed flight and a longer wingspan for high speed flight. The rotating wing assembly allows optimized wing sweep angle for both regimes.

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A foldable variant unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can transform between a fully extended flight configuration and a compact folded configuration for launching from confined spaces like launch tubes. The UAV has a fuselage with symmetrical wings, vertical fins, and horizontal tails. The wings, vertical fins, and horizontal tails can fold up, forward, and downward respectively using mechanisms. This allows the UAV to reduce its size for launching in tight spaces while still maintaining flight capability. The folding mechanisms are simple and reliable for launching from tubes. The UAV can switch between extended flight mode for normal operation and compact folding mode for launching.

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Foldable wing aircraft with a mechanism to variably change wing shape mid-flight. The wings have a modular structure with foldable sections that can extend and retract. The wing sections are connected by actuators, hinges, and linkages. The wings can transition between a folded position for storage and a deployed position for flight. This provides adaptability to optimize wing shape for different missions and environments while minimizing storage space.

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A propeller assembly for unmanned aerial vehicles that self-folds and unfolds without human intervention. The propeller blades have connectors that move within the central hub, allowing the blades to fold when at rest and extend when spinning during flight.

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Foldable and stowable wing structure for drones that allows compact storage and transportation of the drone without compromising wing stability when deployed. The wing structure has an inner wing connected to the fuselage and an outer wing connected to the inner wing. A folding mechanism allows the outer wing to flip and fold parallel to the inner wing, reducing the overall spread width when stowed. A connecting bracket and drive components enable flipping and folding the outer wing perpendicular to the inner wing. This compact folding configuration avoids the outer wing extending beyond the fuselage when stored.

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Folding wing design for unmanned aerial vehicles that allows compact storage and transportation while maintaining aerodynamic performance when flying. The wings are divided into a fixed wing on the fuselage sides, a first folding wing connected to the fixed wing, and a second folding wing connected to the first folding wing. The folding wings have parallel knuckle assemblies that allow direction-changing folding. The knuckles insert into slots on the wings when folded. This shortens the wingspan for storage but straightens inside the wings when flying to prevent hinge interference and maintain airflow lift.

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A modular, flat-packable drone kit can be assembled in multiple configurations with swappable components. The drone kit is made of flat plates that can be cut from a sheet of material, enabling low-cost manufacturing and compact packaging. The components can be secured using integrated mechanisms and elastic bands without specialized tools. The drone can be built in various configurations using different-sized propellers, above/below propeller placement, and modular accessories like cameras or grabbing arms. Multiple drones can be coupled, with one acting as a master flight controller.

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