Aeronautics and astronautics – Aircraft structure – Passenger or crew accommodation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-19
2001-04-10
Swiatek, Robert P. (Department: 3643)
Aeronautics and astronautics
Aircraft structure
Passenger or crew accommodation
C244S120000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06213427
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to safety devices for aircraft and more particularly to self-contained passenger safety modules which house passenger seats, deployable safety members, electricity, air conditioning, water, etc. The modules are preferably made of fiberglass wrapped in insulating materials. They are affixed to the floor of an aircraft fuselage with graduated engineered shear pins and hold down pins locked in place with spring steel clips. The modules are designed to release from an aircraft in the event of an inadvertent impact with the ground.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
While commercial air travel remains one of the safest forms of transportation, accidents, when they do occur, have devastating results. Advances in aeronautical structural engineering have enhanced the capability of protecting passengers from severe injury and death in the event of an airline accident. However, many lives continue to be lost due to impact injuries and smoke and fire related causes. Many of these deaths are directly attributable to passengers who have survived an impact being trapped inside a burning fuselage.
It is widely accepted in the airline industry that in the event of an airline crash, the more quickly passengers can be separated from the fuselage, the greater the chance of survival. Over the years, several safety features and procedures have been adopted to minimize the risk of injury or death in an airline accident. For example, modern aircraft use flame retardant materials within the passenger compartments, jet fuel additives designed to minimize explosion and fuel spread in the event of a leak (although, due to the nature of jet fuel, these additives are marginally effective at best), and emergency exits having deployable exit chutes.
These and other safety features have increased the chance of passenger survival in case of an accident, but, they have only done so in small incremental steps. It remains that most resulting injury and death in a commercial airliner accident are due to impact survivors being trapped within a burning fuselage. Passengers may have suffered an injury that limits their capability of escape. Emergency exits can be blocked by smoke, fire, or metal making a safe exit impossible. In other circumstances, the emergency exits may not be used at all. Instead, the fuselage may be ripped open and passengers, rightly or wrongly, attempt to exit the aircraft through whatever opening is available to them. In these instances, passengers risk injury through contact with pieces of jagged metal or falling.
There is need, therefore, for an improved airliner passenger compartment which increases the chance of passenger survival in the event of an airline crash.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an airliner fuselage passenger compartment module system which will absorb some of the energy of an airline crash.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a module system which will jettison from an airliner after inadvertent impact with the ground.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a module system having airbags and adjustable seat belts for each passenger.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a module system which adds structural strength to the aircraft.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a module system which is made of fiberglass, lightweight, and does not add significantly to the overall weight of an aircraft yet provides significant additional structural and linear strength to the airliner and protection to passenger compartment occupants.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above objects and advantages of the present invention are provided for in a passenger life protection module system for airliners. According to the invention, separate passenger compartment modules designed to hold a predetermined number of occupants are provided. The number of modules is dependent upon the size of the aircraft into which the modules are fitted. Each module is a unit provided with electricity, air conditioning, passenger seats which have an airbag within the back wall of the seat, restraining belts, and a service call button, and installed in the fuselage so as to have easy access to doors in the fuselage for emergency exits.
Each module is preferably constructed of fiberglass wrapped in insulating materials. The modules are inserted into the fuselage of an aircraft and located to the floor with two engineered graduated shear pins and hold down pins which have shoulders for retaining them, and both are held secure with spring clips. The hold down pins are anti-vibration members which must be engineered with breaking strength less than the shear pins.
In the event of an aircraft's impact with the ground, the passenger airbags will deploy causing a deceleration of the individual passengers. Also at the time of impact, the fiberglass structural modules will absorb some of the energy caused by the impact. The shear pins in the module closest to the nose are engineered to break first and due to the inertia strain, the module moves forward upon release by the engineered timed shear pin. Each module after the first one has its own engineered breaking strength shear pin in succession and the module closest to the tail of the fuselage is the last one to break away. Each module, being a self contained unit can release from the disintegrating fuselage, thereby increasing the likelihood of occupant survival.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2075042 (1937-03-01), Knerr
patent: 2497153 (1950-02-01), Cosakis
patent: 2960292 (1960-11-01), Pitta
patent: 4765569 (1988-08-01), Higgins
patent: 5031860 (1991-07-01), Ruiz et al.
patent: 5921504 (1999-07-01), Elizondo
Knechtel Demeur & Samlan
Swiatek Robert P.
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