ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,553,488, issued on Feb. 17, was assigned to Joby Aero Inc. (Santa Cruz, Calif.).
"Dynamic energy absorbing seat" was invented by Jacek Kawecki (San Francisco), Ian Andreas Villa (San Francisco) and Philipp Haban (Pittsburgh).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Embodiments relate to dynamic stroking seats for vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. Seat ballast tanks are attached to aircraft seats. The seats are sprung by a fixed or variable load energy absorption system. The weight of a user is determined and assigned to a corresponding seat of the user. Based on the weight of the user, the fluid level in the ballast tank is monitored a...