Patent attributes
An aircraft having multiple wing planforms. The aircraft includes an airframe having first and second half-wings with first and second pylons extending therebetween. A distributed thrust array is attached to the airframe. The thrust array includes a plurality of propulsion assemblies coupled to the first half-wing and a plurality of propulsion assemblies coupled to the second half-wing. A flight control system is coupled to the airframe. The fight control system is configured to independently control each of the propulsion assemblies and control conversions between the wing planforms. The aircraft is configured to convert between thrust-borne lift in a VTOL orientation and wing-borne lift in a forward flight orientation. In addition, the aircraft is configured to convert between a biplane configuration and a monoplane configuration in the forward flight orientation.
