Side Stick and Inceptor Design Patents: Who Leads, Gaps 2026
- Concentrated at the top. The leading assignee alone accounts for 63 of 196 records in scope, and the top 5 combine for 64.8% of the field.
- Filing accelerated into the 2020s. Filings rose 75% from 2021 (8) to 2024 (14), the most recent year that can be read as complete given publication lag.
- Aircraft-body classes dominate. B64C (aeroplanes & helicopters) touches 71.4% of records, while control-mechanism classes like G05G sit far behind at 28.6%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (8 records) with 2024 (14) — 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 196 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent activity around active inceptors, sidesticks and side stick controllers paired with haptic feedback mechanisms — breakout force, force gradient, artificial feel and force feel units, and stick shaker cueing. The scope spans 2015 through the 2026 data cut-off, covering 196 published records classified primarily under aircraft flight-control and control-mechanism IPC subclasses.
The filing curve peaked in 2020 at 42 records and has moderated since, though the most recent years are understated because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months. Reading the trend past 2024 as a slowdown would be premature on that basis alone.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 196 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim weight.
Filing trend
Filings climbed to a peak of 42 in 2020, then settled into a lower but still active band; the 2021-to-2024 span shows a 75% rise (8 to 14) before publication lag makes the last two years look artificially thin.
Technology composition
B64C (aeroplanes & helicopters) appears in 71.4% of records, confirming most filings are anchored to airframe-level flight control rather than the generic mechanism itself; G05G (control mechanisms) sits at 28.6% and G05D (control of non-electric variables) at 17.9%, with smaller shares in data processing, navigation, training aids and traffic systems. Because records can carry multiple classes, these shares sum past 100% and should be read as overlap, not as a partition of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 196 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Side Stick and Inceptor Design with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about side stick and inceptor design and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited prior art
US9156546B2 — Active-inceptor tactile-cueing hands-off rate-limit
The system contains the active inceptor having mobility in a first direction. A feedback mechanism is in communication with the active inceptor. The mechanism provides a variable level of force to the active inceptor in the first direction. A programmable device communicates with the feedback mechanism and controls the level of force provided. The programmable device distinguishes between a 'hands-on' state, where the operator is physically engaging the inceptor, and a 'hands-off' state, and limits the maximum rate of displacement accordingly.Filed by The Boeing Company, published 2015-10-13.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US4861269A | Sidestick flight control simulator | 113 |
| 2 | US5456428A | Mechanically linked active sidesticks | 107 |
| 3 | US20050080495A1 | Apparatus and method for controlling a force-activated controller | 103 |
| 4 | US20090186320A1 | Modules and methods for biasing power to a multi-engine power plant suitable for one engine inoperative fligh… | 92 |
| 5 | US20120290153A1 | Flight control system with alternate control path | 83 |
| 6 | US20080234881A1 | Vertical speed and flight path command algorithm for displacement collective utilizing tactile cueing and tac… | 65 |
| 7 | US20100123045A1 | Device for switchable pilot control forces | 62 |
| 8 | US8050780B2 | Apparatus and method for controlling a force-activated controller | 54 |
| 9 | US20110266396A1 | Contact detection | 52 |
| 10 | US20120053735A1 | Apparatus and Method for Controlling a Force-Activated Controller | 47 |
Citation counts favour older filings in any searched corpus; treat this table as a map of influential prior art, not of current filing priority.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the filing pattern signals
Three patterns worth separating before drawing conclusions about where to file next.
A small group holds most of the field
The leading assignee alone holds 63 records, and the top 5 combined reach 64.8% of all 196 records in scope. That leaves a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants working around the edges of an already dense core.
Momentum built through the early 2020s
Filings rose from 8 in 2021 to 14 in 2024, a 75% increase over that span, following a 2020 peak of 42. The rise coincides with new entrants working on eVTOL and advanced rotorcraft control, rather than a slowdown in the incumbent base.
Airframe classes outweigh mechanism classes
B64C (aeroplanes & helicopters) touches 71.4% of the 196 records, well ahead of G05G control-mechanism claims at 28.6%. Most protection is being built around the aircraft-level application, not the generic haptic mechanism.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to side stick and inceptor design, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the openings sit
The ranked list covers 37 companies across all 196 records — not a top-50 or top-100 cut, the full set the data endpoint returns.
One assignee sets the pace
The top-ranked assignee holds 63 of the 196 records in scope, more than four times the fifth-place count of 8. Its filings anchor much of the B64C and G05G overlap seen across the dataset.
The top 10 cover most of the field
The top 10 assignees combine for 161 of 196 records, or 82.1% of the field, with tenth place holding 5 records. Below that line, filing activity thins quickly into single-digit and single-filing entrants.
Momentum has cooled at the incumbent level
Several of the most active historical assignees, including established airframers and electronics suppliers, show zero filings in the latest tracked year, alongside a documented -100% year-on-year change for at least one newer entrant. This is consistent with publication lag rather than an actual halt in R&D.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| BAE Systems plc | 0 | — |
| Bombardier Inc. | 0 | — |
| Sikorsky Aircraft Corp | 0 | — |
| Honeywell International Inc. | 0 | — |
| Safran Electronics & Defense | 0 | — |
| Joby Aero, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| SKYRYSE INC | 0 | — |
| Archer Aviation Inc. | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to a field with a dense, concentrated core and thinner but growing activity at its edges.
Map the leader's claim boundaries
With one assignee holding 63 of 196 records, understanding exactly which claim elements it has locked down is the first step before filing anywhere near hands-off state detection or force-gradient control.
Explore claim charts in EurekaTrack the eVTOL entrants
Newer aviation entrants show recent activity in inceptor design even where year-on-year counts have dipped; watching their filing cadence closely is more useful than reading a single down year as retreat.
Set up assignee tracking in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
One assignee leads with 63 of the 196 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked company at 8. The top 5 assignees together hold 64.8% of all records, and the top 10 reach 82.1%. Below that line, activity spreads thinly across a long tail of companies with only a handful of filings each, so a new entrant is more likely to compete against that long tail than against the leader directly.
Filing rose 75% from 8 records in 2021 to 14 in 2024, after an earlier peak of 42 in 2020. The years after 2024 currently show lower counts, but that reflects publication lag of roughly 18 months rather than a real drop in filing, so it is too early to call the field slowing based on the most recent two years alone.
The bulk of records, 71.4% of the 196 in scope, sit under B64C, the IPC subclass for aeroplanes and helicopters, meaning most claims are anchored to an aircraft-level implementation rather than a standalone mechanism. Control-mechanism claims under G05G appear in 28.6% of records, and control of non-electric variables (G05D) in 17.9%. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, these shares overlap rather than sum to 100%.
US9156546B2, assigned to The Boeing Company and published in 2015, covers an active inceptor with a feedback mechanism that varies force based on whether the system detects a 'hands-on' or 'hands-off' state, and that limits displacement rate in the hands-off condition. Anyone building rate-limiting logic tied to hands-off detection on an active inceptor needs to design distinctly around that state-detection-to-force-limit link. It does not block force-feel mechanisms generally, only the specific hands-off rate-limiting behaviour described in its claims.
Sub-areas such as multi-axis force-feel blending, stick-shaker-to-inceptor coupling and eVTOL-specific artificial feel tuning show comparatively thin claim density relative to the core hands-on/hands-off feedback mechanism that dominates the field. These sit adjacent to heavily filed territory but are not yet occupied by the leading assignees' core claims. A first filing there would need to specify the coupling logic or tuning parameters precisely to avoid overlapping the dense prior art around basic force-gradient control.
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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.