ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,539,980, issued on Feb. 3, was assigned to Textron Innovations Inc. (Providence, R.I.).
"Rotary aircraft tie-down fixture" was invented by Alvin Jones (Arlington, Texas), Vitthal Vishnuthreeth Arakeri (Bangalore, India) and Ross Cosby (Mansfield, Texas).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A tie-down fixture for securing a rotary aircraft for transport. The tie-down fixture includes a central hub configured to couple with a main rotor hub of the rotary aircraft and having a keyhole formed therein, a plurality of arms extending from the central hub, and an eyelet extending from each of the plurality of arms."
The patent was filed on May 1, 2024,...