ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,454,345, issued on Oct. 28, was assigned to AIRBUS OPERATIONS Ltd. (Bristol, Great Britain).
"Seal" was invented by Janusz Walega (Bristol, Great Britain) and Paul Morrell (Bristol, Great Britain).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A seal between two aircraft surfaces which are able to move relative to each other. A wing tip device moves between a flight configuration and a ground configuration, in which ground configuration the wing tip device is moved away from the fixed wing such that the span of the aircraft wing is reduced. The fixed wing and wing tip device each comprise an outer surface, and a male seal and female seal are arranged suc...