Aircraft towing vehicle

Details Aircraft towing vehicle Aircraft towing vehicle

2000-02-07

2001-09-04

Bratlie, Steven A. (Department: 3652)

Material or article handling

Wheel and wheel-type article handler and transporter

C414S428000, C414S429000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06283696

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to vehicles, and, more particularly, to an aircraft towing vehicle.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A typical aircraft towing vehicle is disclosed in Patent DE 4,446,048 A1, and with aircraft towing vehicles of this type, the locking to the nose landing gear of an airplane to be towed takes place in such a manner, whereby the aircraft towing vehicle with support elements in a pivoted release position approaches the nose landing gear so that the nose wheels are located in the U-section of the chassis. Subsequently, the support elements are rotated into an operating position in which they reach behind the nose wheels and the nose wheels are pulled by means of the support elements on a lifting platform, are lifted and supported by the lifting platform and locked onto same.
With the aircraft towing vehicle known from Patent DE 4,446,048 A1 each support element is guided by the guiding rail associated with it, by means of an anterior and a posterior roller, and each guiding track is angled outward so that with the approach of the support element to the posterior end of the guiding rail, a rotational movement of the support element into a release position is forced. This means an advantageous simplification as compared to other known aircraft towing vehicles, for example those described in Patent DE 3,732,664 A1 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,244, in which cases it is necessary for each supply element with a linear drive moving longitudinally to employ an additional rotational drive for the locking and release rotational movement of the support element.
The design known from Patent DE 4,446,048 A1 with outwardly angled guiding rails, however, also has disadvantages. One disadvantage lies in the fact that the angled end sections of the guiding rails which surround the two flanks of the chassis at the rear, extend the chassis in an undesirable manner. Hereby it is to be considered that instead of the rectangular strong angling as seen in a simplified drawing in Patent DE 4,446,048 A1, in practical cases an angling with a much greater radius is needed in order to be able to control a more even rotational process of the support elements. Besides that, the manufacture of such angled guiding rails is expensive, and since they must be heavy and massive parts, and because of the angled part of each guiding rail, the weight of the vehicle is increased to an undesirable degree.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is based on the task to design an aircraft towing vehicle of the kind as described, in such a manner, as to achieve control of the rotation of the support elements from the operating into a release position, and vice versa, exclusively by implementation of the linear drive without the necessity of a angling or curved extension of the guiding rails.
In the case of the aircraft towing vehicle of the invention a guiding function by which a linear forward and backward movement of the support elements are converted into a rotational movement is not achieved by the guiding rail but by a mobile guiding track embodied in the support element into which a stationary guiding pin engages at the guiding rail.
The guiding track may run straight, whereby an arrangement of the guiding pin which is eccentric to the operational line of the linear drive, supplies the necessary controls of the rotation of the support element.
The guiding track, however, may be curved like a kind of guiding profile, or may have a slanted section controlling the rotational movement of the support element.
Since the guide rail does not have to control the rotational movement of the support element, it may be designed purely straight-lined and may be essentially shorter than the guiding rail known so far. This allows shorter structural length, a lighter weight and results in lower manufacturing costs.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4030551 (1977-06-01), Boetto et al.
patent: 4418763 (1983-12-01), Boetto
patent: 4453601 (1984-06-01), Orthman et al.
patent: 5031892 (1991-07-01), Stieger
patent: 5336037 (1994-08-01), Curten et al.
patent: 5549436 (1996-08-01), Fresia
patent: 5860785 (1999-01-01), Eberspacher
patent: 4415405 A1 (1995-11-01), None
patent: 4446048 A1 (1996-07-01), None
patent: 0 276 779 A1 (1988-08-01), None
patent: 0 644 115 A1 (1995-03-01), None

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