Andrew J Thompson

US Patent:

7100865, Sep 5, 2006

Filed:

Nov 24, 2003

Appl. No.:

10/720400

Inventors:

James Patrick Byrne - Hudson OH, US
Andrew Thompson - Grand Rapids MI, US

Assignee:

Simmonds Precision Products, Inc. - Vergennes VT

International Classification:

F42B 13/32

US Classification:

244 328, 244 49

Abstract:

Apparatus for stowing and deploying a plurality of control surfaces of a guided air vehicle comprises: a housing including: a plurality of slotted openings along an outside surface thereof; and a corresponding plurality of cavities within the housing, each cavity extending to the outside surface of the housing through the slotted opening corresponding thereto and configured to accommodate span wise stowage of a corresponding control surface of the plurality, and each cavity having a section including an angled ledge and side wall support surface to accommodate stowage of the corresponding control surface in a span wise canted position with respect to the corresponding slotted opening. A method of operating comprises the steps of: folding each control surface of the plurality edge wise through the corresponding slotted opening and into the corresponding cavity within the housing; moving each folded control surface into a stowage section of the corresponding cavity to edge wise mis-align each folded control surface from the corresponding slotted opening; moving each control surface in the corresponding cavity from the corresponding stowage section into edge wise alignment with the corresponding slotted opening; and deploying each control surface edge wise aligned with the corresponding slotted opening from the cavity through the corresponding slotted opening to a deployed position.