ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,415,599, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to Textron eAviation Inc. (Providence, R.I.).
"Wing spindle retention" was invented by Paul C. Collado (Wichita, Kan.) and Perry George (Wichita, Kan.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A wing conversion system is configured to rotate an engine of a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft relative to a wing section between flight modes. The wing conversion system includes a spindle, a conversion actuator, a drive ring, and a holding element. The spindle is rotatably supported for rotation with the engine and relative to the wing section about a spindle axis. The drive ring is drivingly engaged between...