US Patent Issued to RTX on Jan. 13 for "Autonomous inspection of a surface topology of an airfoil of a gas turbine engine" (Texas, Connecticut Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 13 -- United States Patent no. 12,523,617, issued on Jan. 13, was assigned to RTX Corp. (Farmington, Conn.).

"Autonomous inspection of a surface topology of an airfoil of a gas turbine engine" was invented by Jeremiah Lee (Coventry, Conn.) and Sheridon Haye (College Station, Texas).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Apparatus and associated methods relate to autonomous devices configured to map surface topologies of airfoils of gas turbine engines. The autonomous device moves across the airfoil while remaining coupled thereto while sensing the surface topology of the airfoil using an optical gel sensor via an array of airfoil contacting members. The optical gel sensor include...