ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 13 -- United States Patent no. 12,522,367, issued on Jan. 13, was assigned to University of South Carolina (Columbia, S.C.).
"Expandable drone" was invented by Ron Fulbright (Spartanburg, S.C.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Described herein are drone designs, and methods for making same, wherein drones are constructed from interlocking modular nacelles of different types allowing nacelles to be added as needed to increase payload capacity, flight time, and mission capability as the application requires. The modular nacelles can be attached together into an aggregate structure, called a collective, as desired to yield an infinitely expandable and extensible drone. Since e...