Tilting Ducted Fan Propulsion Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing peaked in 2017 at 6 records and has not returned to that level since, with the midpoint year 2022 showing no filings at all.
- One assignee leads with 6 records against a field of 9 ranked assignees where fifth place holds only 2 — a short head and a long single-filer tail.
- 91.7% of the 24 records sit in B64C aeroplanes and helicopters, while classes like F02C, G05D and A63B each cover a handful of records at most.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (0) — 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.
What this dataset covers
Tilting ducted fan propulsion sits at the intersection of VTOL flight control, shrouded-rotor aerodynamics and tilt actuation mechanics. The scope here is narrow and deliberately so: 24 published records matching duct lip separation, static thrust augmentation, tilt actuation, structural load, acoustic benefit and hover claims inside ducted fan or shrouded rotor aircraft titles and abstracts. That is a small, specialist corpus rather than a broad VTOL category, so patterns in it are indicative of a niche technical community rather than an industry-wide race.
Filing offices skew toward the United States, with the WIPO PCT route, Canada, China, the EPO and Israel each contributing a smaller share of the same 24 records. Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the flat-to-zero recent years understate work already filed but not yet published.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 24-record dataset: how filing has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings peaked at 6 records in 2017 and declined toward zero by the 2022 midpoint; the 2026 figure of 0 is partial because the data cut-off is mid-year and recent filings are still working through publication.
IPC subclass composition
B64C (aeroplanes and helicopters) covers 91.7% of the 24 records, confirming this is fundamentally an aircraft-configuration dataset. Secondary classes — B64D, B60F, B62D, B64U, F02C and G05D — each touch a handful of records, and A63B appears once, likely reflecting a personal-flight or recreational framing rather than a distinct technical branch.
Shares are the percentage of the 24 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Tilting Ducted Fan Propulsion with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about tilting ducted fan propulsion and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited records
Ducted Fan Propulsion System (US20180272856A1)
A ducted fan propulsion system built around an outer cowling that forms a duct housing one or more fan blades, driven by motors linked to a power source, with the duct crossed by spokes and, in multi-duct embodiments, several such duct units sharing one cowling. Members attached to the duct assembly extend to a handle carrying a throttle, positioning the system as a hand- or body-held propulsion unit rather than a fixed airframe installation.Filed by Manning, Kerry — published 2018-09-27.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20100076625A1 | Flight control cockpit modes in ducted fan VTOL vehicles | 125 |
| 2 | US20180057157A1 | Tilting Ducted Fan Aircraft Generating a Pitch Control Moment | 95 |
| 3 | US20160040595A1 | Adjustable size inlet system | 32 |
| 4 | WO2008065664A2 | Flight control cockpit modes in ducted fan VTOL vehicles | 30 |
| 5 | US10107196B2 | Adjustable size inlet system | 21 |
| 6 | US20180272856A1 | Ducted Fan Propulsion System | 13 |
| 7 | US10106253B2 | Tilting ducted fan aircraft generating a pitch control moment | 13 |
| 8 | US20200407043A1 | Axial flow ducted fan with a movable section | 9 |
| 9 | US20180201369A1 | Ducted fan propulsion engine | 7 |
| 10 | US10513333B2 | Ducted fan propulsion engine | 6 |
Citation counts favour older publications simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside the searched corpus; treat them as a signal of influence on later filings, not as a ranking of current technical merit.
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 filing strategy
Three patterns stand out once family counts, filing years and citation weight are read together rather than separately.
Activity has not sustained past its 2017 peak
The leading filing year, 2017, produced 6 records; the 2022 midpoint produced none, and momentum by assignee shows every one of the leading six filers at 0 in the latest year. That is consistent with a technology that had an early wave of exploratory filing followed by a quiet period, not with a field currently accelerating.
A short head, a long single-filer tail
The ranking lists 9 assignees; the leader holds 6 records and fifth place holds only 2, with most of the rest holding single filings. That shape points to a technology still explored by individual inventors and small teams alongside one more active corporate filer, rather than a field already claimed by a handful of majors.
Claims cluster on aircraft configuration, not on subsystems
With B64C present in 91.7% of the 24 records, most claims describe the aircraft or its duct/rotor configuration directly. Subsystem-level classes — gas turbine plant (F02C), non-electric control (G05D), aircraft equipment (B64D) — appear in only a few records each, suggesting the propulsion-control and acoustic subsystems around the core duct are comparatively lightly claimed.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to tilting ducted fan propulsion, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
Nine assignees appear in the ranking, from one repeat filer to individual inventors with a single record each. Recent-year momentum is flat across the board, which changes how a competitive read of this field should be framed.
One assignee leads, but not currently
The top-ranked assignee holds 6 of the 24 records in scope, the largest single share in the ranking. Its recent-year momentum is 0, though, meaning its lead was built earlier rather than sustained into the most recent filing years captured here.
A field still open to independent inventors
Several of the ranked assignees are named individuals rather than corporate entities, each holding a small number of records. That pattern is typical of a mechanically-defined niche technology where a working prototype and a well-drafted claim set can still stake meaningful ground.
Almost no joint filing
Only one co-assignee pairing appears in the dataset, linking two of the ranked parties on 2 records. Outside that pair, filings in this dataset are single-assignee, so competitive mapping here is closer to tracking individual filers than tracking alliances.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. | 0 | — |
| Urban Aeronautics Ltd. | 0 | — |
| SUPRA LUMINA TECH INC | 0 | — |
| YOELI RAPHAEL | 0 | — |
| Zhu Shangxiang | 0 | — |
| MANNING KERRY | 0 | — |
| JOHNSON MICHAEL | 0 | — |
| DEVINE MICHAEL THOMAS | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
This dataset is narrow by design. Two follow-on checks make the picture usable for a filing or freedom-to-operate decision.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on the flagged branches
The gaps identified in class composition — tilt-actuation mechanisms, acoustic shrouding, non-electric hover control — need a dedicated search before any claim is drafted, since a low record count here reflects this specific search string, not global prior art.
Explore freedom-to-operate in Eureka →Track the leading filer and the individual inventors together
With momentum flat across the ranked assignees, a working watch list should include the corporate leader and the independent inventors equally, since either could resume filing without much warning in a field this size.
Set up assignee monitoring in Eureka →Common questions on tilting ducted fan propulsion patents
Within this 24-record dataset, one assignee leads with 6 records, ahead of a field of 9 ranked assignees where fifth place holds only 2. The gap between the leader and the rest is notable, but that assignee's recent-year momentum is 0, meaning the lead was accumulated in earlier filing years rather than sustained recently. A practitioner should treat this as a historical lead, not evidence of current dominance, and verify directly whether that filer has active applications not yet published.
Not on the evidence here: filing peaked at 6 records in 2017, dropped to 0 by the 2022 midpoint, and recent-year momentum across every ranked assignee is 0. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one to two years will always look emptier than they eventually turn out to be, but the multi-year decline from the 2017 peak predates that lag effect. Overall the pattern reads as an early wave of exploratory filing followed by a quiet period rather than sustained growth.
B64C, covering aeroplanes and helicopters, appears in 91.7% of the 24 records in scope, making it by far the dominant classification. Secondary classes — aircraft equipment (B64D), multi-environment vehicles (B60F), motor vehicle steering (B62D), drones (B64U), gas-turbine plants (F02C) and non-electric control (G05D) — each cover a small minority of records. That distribution shows claims are concentrated on the aircraft or duct configuration itself, with subsystem-level mechanisms comparatively lightly claimed.
US20180272856A1, filed by Manning, Kerry and published 2018-09-27, claims a ducted fan propulsion system built from an outer cowling forming a duct that houses rotating fan blades driven by motors, with spokes crossing the duct and, in some embodiments, multiple such ducts sharing one cowling. It further claims members extending from the duct assembly to a handle with a throttle, which positions it as a body- or hand-held propulsion device. Anyone designing a similar handheld or personal multi-duct propulsion unit with a throttle-equipped handle should read this claim set closely before finalising a design.
The class composition points to under-claimed territory in tilt-actuation mechanism design, duct lip separation control, static thrust augmentation ducting, acoustic shrouding for hover, and non-electric hover attitude control — each appearing in only a handful of the 24 records against the dominant B64C aircraft-configuration class. These are narrow signals from a specialist 24-record corpus rather than proof of open prior art generally, so any filing decision in these branches should be paired with a dedicated freedom-to-operate search before drafting claims.
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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.