ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,371,162, issued on July 29, was assigned to Textron Innovations Inc. (Providence, R.I.).
"Payload saddle assemblies for use on aircraft" was invented by Levi Charles Hefner (Dallas), Kevin Fisher (Fort Worth, Texas) and Manuel Adrian Gonzalez (Plano, Texas).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A tailsitter aircraft includes an airframe having first and second wings with first and second pylons extending therebetween, a thrust array attached to the airframe, payloads and payload saddle assemblies coupled to the pylons each configured to secure a respective payload. The thrust array includes propulsion assemblies configured to transition the airf...