US Patent Issued to Wipaire on Jan. 20 for "Firefighting float plane with asymmetric scoop deployment mitigation" (Minnesota Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,528,580, issued on Jan. 20, was assigned to Wipaire Inc. (South St. Paul, Minn.).

"Firefighting float plane with asymmetric scoop deployment mitigation" was invented by Charles R. Wiplinger (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A firefighting float plane having a fuselage, one or more wings, two floats, a water scoop associated with each float for filling a water tank of the firefighting float plane, and systems and/or methods for deploying the water scoops to prevent (and/or mitigate the effects of) asymmetric deployment and/or retraction of the water scoops."

The patent was filed on July 17, 2024, under Applicatio...