ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,371,149, issued on July 29, was assigned to The Boeing Co. (Arlington, Va.).

"Multi-functional trailing edge apparatus and methods for aircraft" was invented by Seiya Sakurai (Langley, Wash.), Samuel Lewis Block (Bothell, Wash.), Bret Alan Bowers (Langley, Wash.) and Bryan Jacob Gruner (Bellevue, Wash.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Multi-functional trailing edge apparatus and methods for aircraft are disclosed herein. An example wing of an aircraft disclosed herein includes an aft edge supporting a trailing edge device. The trailing edge device has a control surface and a side surface. A linkage is rotatably coupled to the side surface ...