ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,351,304, issued on July 8, was assigned to AIRBUS OPERATIONS Ltd. (Bristol, Great Britain).
"Wing-box structure" was invented by Henry Edwards (Bristol, Great Britain).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A wing-box structure for an aircraft is disclosed having an upper cover, a lower cover, longitudinal forward and rearward spars, and a plurality of transverse ribs. One of the transverse ribs is retained by a pair of opposed captive features disposed on an interior side of either the forward and rearward spars or the upper and lower covers. The rib is bonded rib to the forward and rearward spars and/or the upper and lower covers at a location w...