Patent ID: 7708231

Claim:
An aircraft system, comprising: a wing; and a trailing edge device coupled to the wing, the trailing edge device being movable relative to the wing between a stowed position and a deployed position, the trailing edge device having a leading edge, a trailing edge, a chord length C between the leading edge and the trailing edge, and an external surface that includes an upper surface and a lower surface, the upper surface having an intersection point with the wing when the trailing edge device is in the stowed position; wherein the motion of the trailing edge device relative to the wing includes motion along a path that converges toward a neighboring trailing edge device of the wing, and rotational motion about a hinge line positioned forward of the intersection point and outside the external surface of the trailing edge device; wherein an airflow gap is positioned between a trailing edge of the wing and the leading edge of the trailing edge device when the trailing edge device is in the deployed position; and wherein on a graph depicting locations forward and aft of the intersection point along an x-axis, and locations above and below the intersection point along a y-axis, the hinge point is positioned forward of and above a series of generally straight line segments line passing through the following coordinates: (0.05*C, −0.05*C), (0.1*C, −0.2*C), (0.2*C, −0.3*C), (0.5*C, −0.4*C), and (1.0*C, −0.5*C).