Railways – Cable rails – Gravity
Patent
1995-12-15
1997-08-26
Le, Mark T.
Railways
Cable rails
Gravity
104115, 1041731, 1041732, B61B 700
Patent
active
056601131
ABSTRACT:
A support system that allows skiers and snow boarders to descend from cliffs and other elevated surfaces while eliminating the high speed impact landing after the descent. Aerial cables (10 and 12), suspended between towers (14 and 16), provide a path for transporting pulleys (18 and 20). Attached to pulleys, support lines (22 and 24) gradually carry the skier in harness (26) towards landing area (32) after the skier experiences a limited free-fall. While skiing down launch area (28), break-away attachments (46 and 48) keep the pulleys in the same plane as the sider and also retain partial slack in the support lines until free-fall begins. After siding from edge of ramp (30), the skier's weight pulls on the support lines causing the break-away attachments to release the partial slack held in each support line. The sider is in free-fall for a distance predetermined by the length of slack in the support lines. The support lines, consisting of semi-elastic nylon material, decelerate the sider and prevent further free-fall descent. After the free-fall, the pulleys transport the skier who is suspended from the support lines towards the landing area. Once at the landing area, the skier gently touches down to the ground with a moderate lateral speed and a near zero vertical speed. The skier has completed a very high cliff jump without having a high speed impact landing with the ground. Additionally, skiers have the option to select a no free-fall jump but still have the experience of siding from a cliff. For a no free-fall option, intermediate loops (34 and 36) attach directly to carabiners (38 and 40). This connection sequence by-passes the break-away attachments and prevents the skier from having the limited free-fall.
REFERENCES:
patent: 318627 (1885-05-01), Keller
patent: 1859180 (1932-05-01), Thiel
patent: 3861318 (1975-01-01), Massa
patent: 4359946 (1982-11-01), Marvin
patent: 4934277 (1990-06-01), Smith et al.
patent: 5224425 (1993-07-01), Remington
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