ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,428,138, issued on Sept. 30, was assigned to TEXTRON INNOVATIONS INC. (Providence, R.I.).
"Blended falx winglet" was invented by Bryan C. Hinson (Wichita, Kan.), Corey Hagemeister (Wichita, Kan.), Kelly Laflin (Wichita, Kan.) and Gonzalo Mendoza (Wichita, Kan.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Blended falx winglets are provided which include an initial winglet section adapted to being attached to an aircraft wingtip, and forward and aft sub-winglets extending outwardly and upwardly from the initial winglet section. The forward and aft sub-winglets may have respective curved transition sections with different radii of curvature, e.g., the r...