Patent ID: 7467758

Claim:
An apparatus for deploying and retrieving a towed aerial device from an aircraft, the apparatus comprising: a rotatable spool having a spool width; a towline wound around the spool and extending therefrom at a tangent point and being connected to the towed aerial device; a drive mechanism operatively coupled to the spool and configured to drivingly rotate the spool for reel-in of the towline during retrieval of the towed aerial device; and an electronically-controlled levelwind assembly configured to uniformly distribute the towline onto the spool during retrieval of the towed aerial device, the levelwind assembly being configured to move the towline back-and-forth across the spool width during retrieval of the towed device and remain stationary relative to the spool width during deployment of the towed device, the levelwind assembly further being configured to remain at an approximate midpoint relative to the spool width during deployment of the towed device.