Patent ID: 7460051

Claim:
A radar reflector deployable from an aircraft and that can be folded up prior to deployment and that opens automatically on deployment and flies freely after deployment, formed by bending and joining together an essentially planar sheet of radar wave-reflecting material, the radar reflector comprising: an essentially square planar base having four edges; four essentially square side reflectors, one side reflector extending from each edge of the base, each side reflector being bent upwards or downwards relative to the base along the edge between each side reflector and the base, such that side reflectors on opposite sides of the base are bent in opposite directions relative to the base, wherein with the radar reflector in an open state each side reflector is at essentially a right-angle to the base, each side reflector comprising edges, wherein edges of adjacent side reflectors bent in a same direction relative to the base are joined together, such that the joined adjacent side reflectors form a corner reflector, wherein each side reflector comprises an outwardly turned first buckled fold extending diagonally from a common inner corner where the joined edges of adjacent side reflectors and the base plane meet to an opposite outer corner of each side reflector, wherein each side reflector further comprises an inwardly turned second buckled fold extending from the common inner corner and dividing a portion of each reflector situated between the first buckled fold and the joined edges of the adjacent side reflectors into two parts that overlap and bear against each other with the reflector in a folded state.