Fly by Wire Control Law Design Patents: Top Filers & Trends 2026
- 63.7% concentration. The top 5 of 67 ranked assignees hold 484 of 760 records in scope — a field with a small set of repeat filers and a long tail behind them.
- +164% filing growth. Filings rose from 33 in 2021 to 87 in 2024, the peak year so far, before the expected publication-lag dip in the most recent partial years.
- B64C dominates, G08G barely claimed. 65.7% of records sit in aircraft/helicopter class B64C, while traffic-control-adjacent class G08G covers only 4.1% — a gap worth checking before filing.
Filing growth compares 2021 (33 records) with 2024 (87) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 760 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the fly-by-wire control law patent record shows
Fly-by-wire control law design covers the algorithms that translate pilot input into actuator commands under envelope protection, normal law, direct law and related flight-control-computer logic. The 760 records in scope span both fixed-wing and rotary-wing platforms, and the search terms deliberately pair the control-computer hardware side with the control-law behaviours — pitch rate command, load factor command, gain scheduling — that define how a given law degrades under failure.
Filing activity is concentrated among a small group of established airframers and helicopter manufacturers, with a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants including newer eVTOL developers. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one to two years in any trend understate true filing activity and should not be read as a slowdown.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 760-record dataset: filing activity over time, and how records distribute across IPC subclasses. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, the class shares below sum to more than 100% of the record total.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings climbed from 30 in 2017 to a peak of 87 in 2024, including the documented +164% rise between 2021 (33) and 2024 (87). 2025 and 2026 show fewer published records, consistent with the normal 18-month gap between filing and publication rather than a genuine drop in activity.
IPC subclass composition
B64C (aeroplanes & helicopters) and G05D (control of non-electric variables) anchor the field at 65.7% and 48.9% of records respectively. B64D (aircraft equipment), G06F (digital data processing) and G05B (control and regulating systems) form a second tier, while G08G (traffic control systems) and F02C (gas-turbine plants) sit well below 10% each — the two smallest and most under-claimed classes in this composition.
Shares are the percentage of the 760 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Fly by Wire Control Law Design with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about fly by wire control law design and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US9587961B2 — Aircraft display management system for flight envelope protection
A display management system for aircraft flight envelope information, built around a control module coupled to the display, a signal detection module that reads sensor parameter values, and a protection selection module that chooses which flight envelope protection attribute to render based on those signals.Filed by Airbus (S.A.S.); published 2017-03-07.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20050004723A1 | Vehicle control system including related methods and components | 640 |
| 2 | US7343232B2 | Vehicle control system including related methods and components | 188 |
| 3 | US20100100260A1 | Alternative method to determine the air mass state of an aircraft and to validate and augment the primary met… | 163 |
| 4 | US4924401A | Aircraft ground collision avoidance and autorecovery systems device | 155 |
| 5 | US4536843A | Total energy based flight control system | 153 |
| 6 | US20110184590A1 | Unmanned aerial vehicle take-off and landing systems | 141 |
| 7 | US20070164166A1 | Apparatus and method for backup control in a distributed flight control system | 133 |
| 8 | US5265827A | Paddle wheel rotorcraft | 133 |
| 9 | US5322243A | Separately banking maneuvering aerodynamic control surfaces, system and method | 123 |
| 10 | US20140324253A1 | Autonomous control of unmanned aerial vehicles | 121 |
Citation counts favour older, longer-indexed records and should be read as a signal of influence within this corpus, not of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three figures from the dataset carry direct implications for where to file and who to watch.
Ownership sits with a small group of repeat filers
The leader alone accounts for 173 records, and the top 5 combined hold 484 of the 760 records in scope. That leaves a long tail among the remaining 62 ranked assignees, most with only a handful of filings apiece — a pattern typical of a field anchored by a few large airframers and helicopter OEMs.
Activity climbed sharply into the 2024 peak
Filing volume nearly tripled across three years, reaching 87 records in 2024, the highest year in the dataset. The falloff visible in 2025-2026 reflects publication lag rather than a real drop in filing activity, since those years are still filling in.
Aircraft/helicopter claims dominate; traffic-systems claims are thin
B64C appears in 499 of 760 records and G05D in 372, showing that most filings anchor their claims in airframe integration and non-electric control logic. G08G (traffic control systems) and F02C (gas-turbine plants) each cover under 32 records, suggesting these adjacent areas carry comparatively little claim density relative to the core.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to fly by wire control law design, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where momentum has moved
The ranked list of 67 assignees is dominated by legacy airframers and helicopter manufacturers, with a small number of newer entrants — mostly eVTOL developers — filing at a much smaller scale.
A single filer holds the largest share
The top-ranked assignee's 173 records represent more than a fifth of all 760 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-place assignee's 54 and the tenth-place assignee's 21 — a steep drop-off after the leader.
Even active newer filers slowed in the latest year
One eVTOL-focused assignee filed 4 records in the latest year, down 88% year-on-year, while several long-established assignees show zero filings in the same period — consistent with publication lag rather than abandonment of the space.
Co-filing is limited and mostly internal
The strongest co-assignee pairing links a helicopter manufacturer with a named inventor at 6 shared records; the next strongest pairs connect a business-jet maker with a legacy propeller-systems firm, and a European airframer with a national research body, each at 4-5 shared records.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Archer Aviation Inc | 4 | -88% |
| Sikorsky Aircraft Corp | 0 | — |
| Bell Helicopter Textron Inc | 0 | — |
| The Boeing Co | 0 | — |
| Airbus Operations (SAS) | 0 | -100% |
| Embraer SA | 0 | — |
| Textron Innovations Inc | 0 | — |
| Gulfstream Aerospace Corp | 0 | — |
Where to take this from here
The trend and composition data point to a field where the core claim space is well occupied but several adjacent branches are not.
Map claim boundaries in the crowded core
B64C and G05D account for the bulk of filings, so any new application touching envelope protection or normal/direct law should be checked closely against the top 5 assignees' portfolios before drafting claims.
Explore the core claim space in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches
G08G and F02C carry comparatively few records relative to the core, which may reflect genuine white space or simply indirect claiming — worth a targeted search before assuming freedom to operate.
Run a white-space search in EurekaWatch newer entrants' filing pace
eVTOL-focused filers show smaller volumes and recent year-on-year declines, but publication lag means the true 2025-2026 picture is not yet visible.
Track assignee momentum in EurekaFrequently asked questions
One assignee leads the ranked field with 173 of the 760 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 54 and the tenth-ranked at 21. The top 5 assignees together hold 484 records, or 63.7% of all records in scope, out of a ranking that covers 67 companies in total. This concentration is typical of a field built by a small number of established airframers and helicopter manufacturers rather than a broad base of independent filers.
Filings grew sharply from 33 in 2021 to a peak of 87 in 2024, a rise of 164% over that span. The apparent decline in 2025 and 2026 is an artefact of publication lag, which typically runs about 18 months between filing and publication, so those years are still filling in and should not be read as a genuine slowdown. On the evidence available through the complete year of 2024, the field was expanding, not contracting.
US9587961B2, assigned to Airbus, claims a display management system that renders flight envelope protection information by combining a control module, a signal detection module reading aircraft sensor parameters, and a protection selection module that chooses which envelope protection attribute to display. It is specifically about the display and selection logic for envelope protection information, not the underlying control law computation itself. Anyone building a cockpit display that selects and presents envelope protection attributes from live sensor data should review this claim scope closely rather than assume it is a blanket barrier to all envelope-protection work.
Based on IPC composition, G08G (traffic control systems) covers only 4.1% of the 760 records and F02C (gas-turbine plants) covers 3.2%, both well below the 65.7% and 48.9% shares held by the core B64C and G05D classes. This suggests comparatively thin claim density where fly-by-wire control logic intersects with traffic-control interfaces or gas-turbine integration. A thin count is not proof of open white space on its own, but it is a reasonable signal to prioritise a targeted search in those intersections before committing to a filing strategy.
The evidence shows at least one eVTOL-focused entrant filing at a much smaller scale than the legacy leaders, with 4 records in the latest tracked year, itself down 88% year-on-year. Several long-established aerospace assignees also show zero filings in the same latest year, which is consistent with the normal 18-month publication lag rather than a real pullback. Overall, the ranked leaders remain dominated by traditional airframers and helicopter manufacturers, with newer electric-aviation entrants still building smaller, early-stage portfolios.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.