On 3/29/2010 6:14 PM, Sylvia Else wrote:
On 29/03/2010 5:21 AM, Pat Flannery wrote:
I wish they had described how this is supposed to work; it looks like
the top and bottom counter-rotate, with each having three rotor blades
for VTOL. Whatever it is, Lockheed designed it:
http://www.google.com/patents/about?...J&dq=4,802,639

Pat

The only claim is for the ornamental design (which I'd have thought
wasn't even patentable). There's no indication that they even think it
could fly.

Patenting the "Ornamental Design" is a way of patenting it without
having to explain the details of how it works that's been used before by
the aerospace industry.
Here's an example - the Northrop-Grumman patent for their Next
Generation Bomber project:
http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/as...rs-wright.html
Note in this case, it's assigned to "Northrop Gumman Corporation" ;-)

Pat