US Patent Issued to Raytheon on Oct. 7 for "Articulating inlet for airbreathing extended range projectiles and missiles" (Arizona, California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,435,960, issued on Oct. 7, was assigned to Raytheon Co. (Arlington, Va.).

"Articulating inlet for airbreathing extended range projectiles and missiles" was invented by Andrew J. Lotti (Tucson, Ariz.), Shawn P. Burke (Vail, Ariz.), Donald G. Messitt (Folsom, Calif.) and Jaylan S. Jones (Tucson, Ariz.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A projectile includes a wing structure to form both an inlet that intakes air for combustion by a propulsion system of the projectile during an initial range of flight, and a lift surface for the projectile after the propulsion engine of the propulsion system burns out. The wing structure acts as both the inlet a...