Patent ID: 11899471
Assignee: INSITU, INC., A SUBSIDIARY OF THE BOEING COMPANY
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. An apparatus to recover an aircraft or a payload carried thereby, the apparatus comprising:
a tether line; and
markers supported by the tether line at different positions of the tether line, the markers to be detected by the aircraft, the aircraft to be guided to engage the tether line by:
determining positions of the markers,
calculating a position of at least a portion of the tether line based on the determined position of the markers, and
directing, based on the position of the at least the portion of the tether line, movement of the aircraft to cause at least one of the aircraft or a payload carried by the aircraft to contact the tether line while the aircraft is in flight.