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Title:
AN AUTOMATIC RESCUING SYSTEM FOR AIRCRAFT PASSENGERS
Document Type and Number:
WIPO Patent Application WO/2003/029076
Kind Code:
A1
Abstract:
This invention provides an automatic system for rescuing passengers from an aircraft in danger. The aircraft is constructed with a removable fuselage basement (20), which in case of any anomaly is pulled out of the aircraft with the means of two main parachutes (51). Once the basement is out of the aircraft's body, automatically the chairs (40) detach from this basement and individual parachutes (45) are opened. For farther safety the chair legs are equipped with shocks to reduce the impact with the ground and with means of floating for in-water landing.

Inventors:
VRAPI ARBEN (AL)
Application Number:
PCT/IB2001/001801
Publication Date:
April 10, 2003
Filing Date:
October 01, 2001
Export Citation:
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Assignee:
VRAPI ARBEN (AL)
International Classes:
B64D25/12; (IPC1-7): B64D25/08; B64C1/32
Foreign References:
FR2687124A11993-08-13
EP1110861A12001-06-27
US5921504A1999-07-13
US5110071A1992-05-05
US3724788A1973-04-03
Other References:
PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN vol. 014, no. 367 (M - 1008) 9 August 1990 (1990-08-09)
Download PDF:
Claims:
Claims What I claim is:
1. The aircraft construct comprising: a. A removable fuselage basement b. A compartment in the lower back part of the aircraft for keeping two main parachutes. c. A removable back hatch d. Detachable passenger chairs.
2. An automatic rescuing system for passengers in the aircraft constructed as in claim 1 where the two parachutes are connected with the fuselage basement with the means of cables.
3. A rescuing system as in claim 2 where the two parachutes when opened remove the back hatch and pull the fuselage basement out of the aircraft's body.
4. A rescuing system as in claim 3 where when the fuselage basement is completely out of the aircraft, the tension in the basement between the aircraft pulling forward and the main parachutes pulling backward detach the passenger chairs.
5. A rescuing system as in claim 4 where once the passenger chairs are detached from the basement an individual parachute placed at back of the seat is opened allowing the passengers to safely land nearby.
6. The passenger seat row attached on two tracks that keep them on the fuselage basement. When the tracks move to a second point the chairs are lifted and detached from the basement.
7. An attachingdetaching apparatus between the fuselage basement and the aircraft's body.
8. An attachingdetaching apparatus as in claim 7 comprising: a. Two levers, which are connected to the main parachutes with the means of cables. b. A rotating element being pivotally attached to the fuselage basement and has a branch connected to the foresaid levers. c. A short connecting element between the rotating element and the main connecting element, which rotating together with the rotating element, pulls the main connecting element detaching so the basement from the aircraft's body.
9. The passenger's chair where below the seat in its mid point is placed a pushing spring, which causes the chair legs to open aside when free from the basement tracks and also opens the chair's back hatch lunching so the individual parachute.
Description:
TITLE OF INVENTION An automatic rescuing system for aircraft passengers.

Technical Field Of Invention The present invention relates to aircraft and more specifically it relates to passengers safety. It provides an automatic system for rescuing the passengers from an aircraft in danger while this is in flight.

Background Art Numerous aircraft have been provided in prior art that are adapted to include detachable cabin sections with parachutes for safe landing. Different examples of this method are the patent US 4699336 and US 5356097.

Another method used to safely land the passengers after an aircraft defect is to lunch the passengers in their own chair backed by an individual parachute.

Examples of this method are the patents GB 934312 and US 5979829.

The present invention provides a more efficient way of landing the passengers in their own chairs helped by individual parachutes.

Description of invention The present invention provides a method for safely landing the passengers in the case of an aircraft accident. This system can be used in aircrafts traveling at a maximum altitude and with a maximum velocity that are valuated by the experts of the said field.

This method generally consists of an aircraft construct as following: At the back of the aircraft are placed two parachutes connected by cables to the fuselage basement, which when pulled by the two parachutes moves upon roller bearings and comes out of the aircraft's body. Immediately after this the chairs are detached from the basement and every one flies independently from the others landing safe with the means of the individual parachute. The chairs are constructed so that they will minimize the impact with ground and they can be equipped with means for floating in case of in-water landing.

The invention generally comprises a removable fuselage basement 20, which can run over bearings 21 fixed on the aircraft's fixed basement 30 and chairs 40 that can be detached with any appropriate mechanism. The removable basement 20 is attached in the fixed basement 30 as shown in fig 5. The hydraulic pipes and electric cables that are situated at the removable basement 20 are connected with male-female plugs in order to easy unplug when the basement detaches from the aircraft's body. Also the compartment separating walls and bathrooms are fixed in the removable basement 20 and move together if or when the basement 20 moves. In the back part of the plain there is a compartment 50 with two parachutes 51 that are activated when the hatch 52 is removed with any appropriate meaning. For illustrative purposes we can use the mechanism presented heretofore.

Whenever an anomaly happens, somebody for example the pilot or any other member of the crew, can pull the handle 53 (fig 3), which pivotally moves the connecting element 55 (held at its attaching position by springs 56) opening so the hatch 52 whose edge is angled to ease the opening. The hatch 52 when opened at a certain degree completely detaches from the aircraft's body 10.

The cables 54 are placed in gashed rubber pipes as described below for the chair in fig 11 and pass through the back hatch's gashes 77 shown in fig 12.

Once the hatch 52 is removed the two main parachutes 51 come out and open.

Then they start to pull the connecting element 71, which is held at its attaching position by springs 74 (Fig 15). The element 71 has male-female attaching style at sides with the back hatch 70 and a limitation element 76 at top of it The back hatch 70 opens and at a certain degree completely detaches from the aircraft.

The elements 72 are fixed with the cables 54 between two points 73 (Shown in Fig 16). Also the element 72 and the element 71 are attached in male-female style at edges 75. When the back hatch 70 is detached the elements 72 detach from the connecting element 71 and move with the cables.

Immediately after this the parachutes activate with the means of cables 54 the attaching-detaching apparatus of the fuselage's basement 20. The attaching- detaching apparatus is shown in fig 6. The cables 54 pull the respective levers 81 from the first point, where they are held by springs 87 to the edge of the basement. These levers pivotally move the rotating element 82 around the point 83. The rotating element 82 is pivotally attached to the short connecting element 84. The short connecting element 84 pulls the connecting element 85, which moves guided by the element 86 fixed on the basement 20 and detaches the removable basement 20 from the fixed one 30. Once detached from the aircraft's body the fuselage's basement 20 begins to move on bearings 21 used to ease the movement.

The end of the basement 20 is connected with the aircrafts body 10 with a cable 11.

Since two identical parachutes 51 are used to pull the basement 20, it remains in equilibrium after ifs completely out of the plane.

When the cable 11 is straightened completely, it starts to pull the levers 91 pivotally rotating them around the point 93 where said levers are attached to basement 20. The levers 91 pivotally push the branches 94 pushing so the four tracks 92 where the chairs are attached. As shown in fig 8 when the tracks are pushed the chair can't be pushed because its inside the border 22 of the basement 20 so its legs start to upraise under the pushing effect of the platform 65 and after that they detach from the tracks. Once the chair is detached from the tracks the spring 41 (fig 10) pushes the branch 63 of the chair legs opening them at sides at a certain degree limited by the angle limiter 62 and freeing the shocks 64 from the limiter 61. Simultaneously the spring 41 pulls with the means of a cable 42 (Fig 11) the connecting element 43 of the chair's back hatch 44. The springs 46 push the element 47 and release the hatch 44. Then the element 47 pushes the parachute 45, which comes out of the chair's back and opens permitting the passenger to safely land nearby.

As shown in fig 14 before the individual parachute is opened its connecting cables 66 are placed inside the chair's structure in rubber made pipes 67 with a longitudinal gash 68 and the parachute pulls them out of the pipes easily from this gash. In order to keep the rubber pipes in the chair's structure these pipes have a T-shaped connecting element 69 attached to the chair's structure. For giving an idea of the cables placement inside the chair's structure, the cables and the rubber pipes are symbolized in fig 11 by the dashed line 49. The mechanism used to open the chair's back hatch 44 is similar to the one used to open the parachutes compartment hatch 52. The chair's side legs are coupled as shown in fig 11. In fig 11 is also shown the safety belt of the passenger that is 45 degree in respect to the chairs back so that the passenger won't slip from the chair during the landing. The individual parachute's connecting cables are fixed in three points 48 of the chair. One point is in the mid point of the chair's back and the two others are symmetrically at sides (shown in Fig 11) so the passenger will remain in upright equilibrium during the landing. Also the chair legs are equipped with shocks 64 (shown in fig 10) in order to reduce the impact with the ground and with floating devices in case of in-water landing.

Brief description of the drawings Fig 1 is a schematic view of a moment of the rescuing process.

Fig 2 shows the back part of the aircraft where is shown the parachutes compartment and the back hatch.

Fig 3 shows the mechanism used to open the parachutes compartment hatch.

Fig 4 shows the back hatch opened at a certain degree just a moment before it completely detaches from the aircraft's body.

Fig 5 is a cross section of the aircraft's body at the passenger's compartment.

Fig 6 shows the mechanism used to attach or detach the fuselage basement from the aircraft's body.

Fig 7 shows the fuselage basement when ifs completely out of the aircraft.

Here are also shown the elements of the system used to detach the passenger chairs from the basement and how this system works.

Fig 8 is a longitudinal cross-section of the removable fuselage basement where is shown how the chairs are attached to their tracks and the elements of the system used to detach them from the basement.

Fig 9 shows the chair in a normal position when it is still in its tracks.

Fig 10 shows the chair when its detached from the basement and the legs are opened aside.

Fig 11 is a cross section of the chair where is shown how the bottom spring opens the chair's back hatch and activates the individual parachute. Here are also shown the chair's legs that are coupled at sides and the safety belt for the passenger.

Fig 12 shows the back hatch and the means used to properly attach it to aircraft's body so that when opened at a certain degree it detaches from the aircraft.

Fig 13 shows part of the attaching-detaching apparatus in the detaching position. Here is shown that lever 81 is at the edge of the removable basement and at this point the cables 54 start to pull the foresaid basement.

Fig 14 shows the gushed rubber pipes inside of which are placed the parachute's connecting cables.

Fig 15 shows the connecting element of the back hatch 70 with the aircraft's body.

Fig 16 shows the element 72 that remains attached to the cable 54.

Fig 17 is perspective view of the parachutes compartment hatch 52.

Fig 18 is perspective view of a part of the chair tracks where are shown the elements that cause the chair to lift and detach when this tracks move.