US Patent Issued to Wing Aviation on Jan. 28 for "Using unwound tether length to measure altitude" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 29 -- United States Patent no. 12,209,884, issued on Jan. 28, was assigned to Wing Aviation LLC (Palo Alto, Calif.).

"Using unwound tether length to measure altitude" was invented by Ivan Qiu (Redwood City, Calif.) and Louis Kenneth Dressel (San Francisco).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method includes obtaining sensor data indicating a tension experienced by a tether while a payload coupling apparatus connected to the tether is lowered from an aerial vehicle using the tether. The method also includes determining, based on the sensor data, a ground contact time at which the payload coupling apparatus or a payload coupled thereto made initial contact with a ground surfac...