ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,416,181, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to Textron Innovations Inc. (Providence, R.I.).
"Door flag" was invented by Richard Stoddard Conkling (Kechi, Kan.), Evan M. Johnson (Wichita, Kan.) and Joseph Allan Smarsh (Andale, Kan.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A flag mechanism for an aircraft door includes a first arm and a second arm each having a flag on a first end and a catch on a second end. A first cam is operatively coupled to a first latching member and a second cam is operatively coupled a second latching member. The first and second latching members are each configured for latching the aircraft door, which are locked when the f...