Aeronautics and astronautics – Aircraft structure – Details
Reexamination Certificate
2002-10-03
2004-06-22
Dinh, Tien (Department: 3644)
Aeronautics and astronautics
Aircraft structure
Details
Reexamination Certificate
active
06752356
ABSTRACT:
This application claims priority of French application no. 01 12838 which was filed on Oct. 5, 2001, and was not published in English.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention concerns a control device and method for the emergency opening of an aircraft evacuation door. It also concerns an aircraft emergency evacuation device equipped with such an opening control. Evacuation door is taken to mean an aircraft door intended as an exit door for the occupants of an aircraft in case of an incident or accident. An evacuation door can also be used, under normal use conditions, for embarkation and disembarkation of passengers and/or the crew members of the aircraft.
The invention can be applied to different types of aircraft, including civil or military, and in particular to passenger transport airplanes.
STATE OF PRIOR ART
Aircraft entries/exits are typically delimited by a frame, connected to the fuselage, which receives a door linked to it by a hinge. The hinge defines the door's travel as it is displaced between open and closed positions. The hinge also allows control of the door's orientation whilst it is being displaced.
Entries/exits are also equipped with means for locking the door to the frame. The locking means, designed to ensure the door's closed position, are usually handled manually by the crew or by the airport's ground personnel.
Lastly, the door and the frame are provided with stops which come into contact during closing. Pressurisation inside the aircraft assists in maintaining contact between the stops and support surfaces to which they are coupled.
Aircraft entries/exits can be used as safety exits for an emergency evacuation. For this application they are equipped with evacuation equipment such as inflatable slides, for example. The slides can be stored in compartments built into the fuselage or the aircraft's wing. It is nevertheless more usual to arrange for a compartment for the slides directly in the entry/exit doors able to be used in the event of emergency evacuation.
When the door is closed, following passenger embarkation, the personnel on board arm a system which mechanically connects the slide, stowed in the door, to the door threshold, that is to the fixed frame.
For normal opening of the door, the system mechanically connecting the slide to the door frame is disarmed allowing the door to be opened without deployment of the slide.
On the other hand, in the case where door opening occurs during an emergency evacuation procedure, the slide is automatically deployed outside the aircraft.
Slide deployment takes place, for example, by inflation using a means of inflation designed for this purpose.
Certification authority regulations stipulate that total evacuation of an aircraft must be carried out within 90 seconds, with half the doors and safety exits operational. This time interval commences when an evacuation signal (illuminated panel, sound signal) is emitted, and terminates when all passengers and crew have reached the ground. It thus encompasses the opening of the doors, slide inflation, evacuation of passengers, the crew verifying that all passengers have in fact left the aircraft and crew evacuation. These different stages are all the more difficult to implement in the allotted time, considering the passengers' inevitable hesitation at the top of the slides and the escape route passengers must take to get to the safety exits.
Given the very short time allowed for total evacuation of passengers and crew, it is important to carry out operations not subject to human intervention in a minimum time period, that is, in particular, the opening of the door and the slide inflation. To this effect, in the event of an accident or incident, an emergency door opening device replaces the device used in a normal situation. When personnel on board unlock the door to open it, the emergency opening device automatically applies a very significant force to the door allowing it to be rapidly opened, without human intervention and overcoming the external constraints which might impede its opening. Generally, strong pressure is supplied in a cylinder which, by means of a piston, causes the door to be suddenly opened.
At the same time, the action of unlocking the door initiates the slide deployment and inflation. Typically, the duration of these operations (opening of the door and deployment-inflation of the slide) should not exceed 10 seconds.
Aeronautical manufacturers seek to gain time in these automatic operations of opening of the door and deployment-inflation of the slide. These operations are effectively the only ones it is possible to optimize. An ongoing aim is thus to increase the speed of opening of the door and of deployment/inflation of the slide.
A safety issue however arises when the time taken for opening the door is insufficient to ensure complete deployment of the slide.
Document EP-O 741 073 is cited as an illustration of the technological background. It describes a damping device for opening and closing of an onboard access door. The document only applies, however, to opening and closing of the door under normal conditions of use, that is for embarkation and disembarkation of passengers. The described device stops an unexpected strong pressure exerted on the door (for example a gust of wind) throwing the door against the fuselage (entailing risk of shock and damage to the fuselage or to one of the door's own mechanisms) or a crew member's limb (for example, an arm stuck in the door frame). The device described in the abovementioned document has thus as its sole objective to respond to an untimely external prompting capable of modifying the normal operating conditions of the door.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention aims to propose a command device and method for emergency opening of an aircraft door, as well as an emergency evacuation device which does not have the limitations mentioned above.
One objective is in particular to allow emergency opening of entry/exit doors which is particularly rapid.
Another objective is to avoid complete opening of the door before deployment of an evacuation equipment associated with the entry/exit under consideration.
One objective, finally, is not to delay the opening of the door until complete deployment of the evacuation equipment.
To attain these objectives, the invention has, more precisely, as its object, a control device for emergency opening of an aircraft door comprising:
at least one triggering mechanism for emergency opening,
at least one door actuator, and
means of power supply to the actuator responding to the triggering mechanism.
According to the invention, the device also comprises means for modification of the power delivered by the means of power supply to the actuator, to allow the door to be opened more slowly in an initial phase of opening and more rapidly in at least one subsequent opening phase. Whilst the description which follows refers to only one triggering mechanism and one actuator, it is understood the device of the invention may comprise several triggering mechanisms, manual or automatic, as well as several actuators. In the case of a number of actuators, these can work in a concomitant, successive or sequential fashion.
Whilst, in each phase, the power delivered to the actuator is sufficient to allow the door to be opened, the power delivered to the actuator is weaker in the initial phase than in the subsequent phase or phases. In the initial phase the power is provided for producing a relatively slow opening.
The slow initial opening of the door, whilst simultaneously triggering the opening of the door and the deployment of the evacuation equipment, permits the full opening of the door to be delayed, thus allowing time for the evacuation equipment's deployment. The slow phase of door opening is termed the initial phase insofar as the door is not completely opened at the end of this phase. This feature prevents an agitated passenger from climbing out of the aircraft before complete deployment of the evacuation equipment.
During the
Baderspach Jérôme
Modern Albert
Rondot Sébastien
Airbus France
Dinh Tien
Thelen Reid & Priest LLP
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