US Patent Issued to United States of America as represented by the Administrator of NASA on April 14 for "Aeromechanical line climber" (Virginia, Colorado, New Jersey, Maryland Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,600,473, issued on April 14, was assigned to United States of America as represented by the Administrator of NASA (Washington).

"Aeromechanical line climber" was invented by Geoffrey Bland (Assawoman, Va.), Joseph Bretthauer (Silver Spring, Md.), Ted Miles (Onancock, Va.), Kay Rufty (Boulder, Colo.) and Douglas Stout (Byram Township, N.J.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Embodiments may provide a "aeromechanical line climber" device that uses aerodynamic forces and moments to alternatively ascend and descend a line, or tether, fixed to an airborne platform, such as a kite, a balloon, a blimp, an aircraft, etc. In various embodiments, an a...