| CPC B64U 70/70 (2023.01) | 7 Claims |

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1. A catapult launcher for a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the launcher comprises at least two sections that form a longitudinal starting rail that is mounted on supports, the rail is equipped with elastic cords and a release device, a carriage, which is linearly movable, is mounted on the longitudinal starting rail while interacting with the elastic pulling rods and the release device, and the carriage is equipped with a UAV interaction mechanism, wherein the longitudinal starting rail has an I-beam cross-section, four pairs of wheels are mounted in a carriage lower part and configured to interact with vertical surfaces of the longitudinal starting rail, and two pairs of wheels are configured to interact with internal horizontal surfaces of the longitudinal starting rail, another pair of wheels that is configured to interact with an external surface of the longitudinal starting rail is mounted in a carriage rear part, the carriage has two side plates with the UAV interaction mechanism provided in the carriage, the interaction mechanism comprises fasteners in a form of two spring-loaded rods having free ends that are mounted vertically in an upper part of the side plates and other ends that are fixed in a crossbeam that is arranged between the carriage side plates and connected to wheels supports of the carriage rear part that are movable vertically, and joint elements that are arranged in upper exposed zones of the plates and comprise rollers pairs that are mounted on the crossbeam, and adapters are fixed on a UAV's fuselage, the adapters are made in a form of two plates, a lower edge of each of the plates is produced with a groove so as to enable interaction with the rod and a detent in a form of a hook having an internal surface and an external surface that are tangent during interaction with the rollers of the joint elements; a beginning of the longitudinal starting rail is provided with an inclined section that is beveled in a launching direction, the inclined section is provided with a hole, and the release device comprises a hook that is configured to detachably interact with the carriage lower part and to crank into the hole of the inclined section, the elastic cords are symmetrically arranged along the longitudinal starting rail, while passing around roller blocks on sides of the longitudinal starting rail, and fixed, with cord first ends, on a carriage front part and fixed, with cord second ends, to a rigging bar that is provided on an underside at the beginning of the longitudinal starting rail.
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