US Patent Issued to AeroVironment on July 14 for "Unmanned aerial vehicle and method of operation" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 14 -- United States Patent no. 12,679,532, issued on July 14, was assigned to AeroVironment Inc. (Arlington, Va.).

"Unmanned aerial vehicle and method of operation" was invented by Christopher E. Fisher (Simi Valley, Calif.), John P. Zwaan (Simi Valley, Calif.), Marc L. Schmalzel (Simi Valley, Calif.), Steven Chambers (Simi Valley, Calif.) and Justin McAllister (Monrovia, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight includes providing horizontal thrust in-line with the direction of forward flight of the UAV using at least one electric motor, providing primary vertical lift for the UAV during the forward flight using a fixed and n...