Deployable wings for an aircraft

Description (excerpt)

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present disclosure claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application 63/555,696, filed on Feb. 20, 2024, and entitled “DEPLOYABLE WINGS FOR AN AIRCRAFT”, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT This invention was made with government support under grant CMMI2144732 awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and contract FA8650-18-C-2808 awarded by the United States Air Force. The government has certain rights in the invention. TECHNICAL FIELD This disclosure generally relates to aircraft, and specifically to a mechanism for the opening or deployment, folding or closing, and storage of the wings of an aircraft which are pivotally and/or rotatably mounted to the aircraft. BACKGROUND Some aircraft may have deployable wings which are, in a non-deployed position, stored inside or alongside the body or fuselage of an aircraft. Typically, to deploy the wings, the wings are either pivotally or rotatably mounted to the fuselage, and a mechanism or more than one mechanism rotates, pivots, or otherwise moves the wings into the deployed or functional position. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 A illustrates a front perspective view of an example aircraft with an apparatus for deploying a pair of foldable wings of an aircraft in a first, closed configuration. FIG. 1 B illustrates a front perspective view of the example aircraft shown in FIG. 1 A in a second configuration which is during deployment of the wings. FIG. 1 C illustrates a front perspective view of the example aircraft shown in FIG. 1 A in a final, fully deployed configuration. FIG. 2 illustrates a rear perspective view of the example apparatus for deploying the wings of the aircraft illustrated in FIGS. 1 A-C according to Detail A from FIG. 1 B . FIG. 3 illustrates an example diagram of the relationship of movements of an example spherical four-bar linkage mechanism. FIG. 4 illustrates a front elevation and cross section view of the example apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 A-C , taken along Section A-A shown in FIG. 1 A , further showing the relationship of movements of an example spherical four-bar mechanism. FIG. 5 is a chart comprising a series of theoretical solutions to a system of kinematic equations defining the movements of the spherical four-bar apparatus for deploying the wings of an aircraft illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 4 . FIG. 6 A illustrates a top plan view of the example apparatus shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 , in the first configuration of the aircraft shown in FIG. 1 A . FIG. 6 B illustrates a bottom plan view of the example apparatus shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 , in the first configuration of the aircraft shown in FIG. 1 A . FIG. 6 C illustrates a bottom plan detailed view of the example apparatus shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 , in the first configuration of the aircraft shown in FIG. 1 A . FIG. 7 A illustrates a top plan view of the example apparatus shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 , in the secon