Aeronautics and astronautics – Aircraft structure – Details
Patent
1982-12-21
1984-05-08
Barefoot, Galen L.
Aeronautics and astronautics
Aircraft structure
Details
16313, 16278, 49386, 49237, B64C 114
Patent
active
044470266
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
RELATED APPLICATIONS
Alex Maraghe and Allan William Opsahl, U.S. application Ser. No. 448,720, filed Dec. 10, 1982, for "Spring Operated Counterbalance Hinge Assembly for Aircraft Doors".
Karl G. Skotte, U.S. application Ser. No. 451,809, filed Dec. 21, 1982, for "Cantilever Spring Counterbalance Hinge Assembly For Aircraft Doors".
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to plug-type aircraft doors of the type adapted to swing through an arc approximating 180.degree. about a generally vertical axis between a fully closed position flush with the aircraft fuselage and a fully opened position wherein the door is disposed in a plane essentially parallel to the aircraft fuselage centerline and with the door's outer skin surface in face-to-face relation with the outer skin surface of the fuselage; and, more particularly, to a simple, effective, compact and improved cam operated counterbalance hinge assembly for assisting on-board flight attendants who are required to manually open and close such doors--doors which today often weigh in excess of 300 pounds--and who, in the performance of their duties, must lift the relatively heavy door upwardly while simultaneously pushing outwardly to open the door and, similarly, must again lift the door upwardly while simultaneously pulling the door towards a closed position. Such movement of the door, which presents difficult and awkward problems for on-board flight attendants, is necessitated because the hinge axis for such doors must be inwardly canted from true vertical so that the operating components of the hinge assembly can be mounted within the curved configuration of the fuselage body structure.
2. Background Art
Conventional commercial aircraft are commonly provided with a multiplicity of ingress and egress openings in the aircraft fuselage with suitable doors being provided for closure of such openings. The doors vary widely in terms of their construction and operation. Commonly, such doors are plug-type doors which are designed to fit into the ingress/egress openings when the doors are closed so as to form a substantially smooth, continuous, uninterrupted, exterior skin surface. When such doors are opened, they are pivoted about the axis of a first torque tube assembly mounted in the door and moved slightly inboard, at which point the doors are pivoted simultaneously about the axes of both the first door-mounted torque tube assembly and a second torque tube assembly mounted in the fuselage body structure and to which the door is hingedly connected, with the door moving outwardly through the ingress/egress opening and swinging through an arc approximating 180.degree. so that when fully opened, the door is entirely disposed outside of the aircraft fuselage, lying in a plane generally parallel to the aircraft centerline and with the door's outer skin surface essentially in face-to-face contact with the outer skin surface of the fuselage. In most instances today, such doors are manually operated by on-board flight attendants since most commercial aircraft carriers are reluctant to rely upon electrical actuating systems which are subject to electrical malfunction.
Moreover, as is well known to those skilled in the art, plug-type doors of the foregoing type, since they are required to conform in construction to the shape of the fuselage while providing access to the passenger compartment in the upper lobe of the aircraft, do not and cannot lie in a vertical plane either when fully closed or when fully opened; but, rather, they lie in a curvilinear plane having an inwardly canted chord line. As a consequence, the hinge assembly, including the fuselage mounted torque tube assembly, which must be entirely confined within the aircraft body structure, is inwardly canted from true vertical, often defining acute angles with the vertical of up to on the order of from 7.degree. to 10.degree., or slightly more. This, of course, means that when the door is opened and pivoted through an arc about the generally vertical, inwardly c
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Barefoot Galen L.
The Boeing Company
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