Amusement devices – Having trip-release supporting person against gravity
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-17
2001-11-13
Nguyen, Kien T. (Department: 3712)
Amusement devices
Having trip-release supporting person against gravity
C472S068000, C434S247000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06315672
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to installations for artificially producing a training and levitation wind for permitting people to float in the air, such as free flight simulators suitable for reproducing free fall in air.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Installations for simulating free flight, whether they are intended for sports use, e.g. parachute training, or for artistic use, are known and serve to cause people or objects to be levitated by means of a substantially vertical jet of air produced over a limited area by means of a blower unit or system. The speed of the air is preferably more or less constant over the entire area of the jet of air, and the section of the jet can optionally be made variable while flight is in progress.
Thus, it is known, e.g. from British Patent Application No. 2,094,163, to make installations of this type in the form of a fixed installation having a closed air circuit. Such an installation makes use of a large building of fixed infrastructure having the simulation installation permanently installed therein. The installation has a free flight chamber in the form of a cylindrical chimney that is several meters tall and several meters across, together with a series of staircases, access rooms, and observation halls arranged around the chimney. The bottom portion of the chimney opens out into a room containing the blower unit which includes an impeller and the means required to drive it for the purpose of generating a vertical flow of air in the chimney. The installation also has a closed air circuit for sucking air in and blowing it out within the installation itself, so that in spite of its large size the installation operates in a closed circuit.
The size of such installations and the necessary equipment necessarily requires a high level of financial investment for implementation, and operating costs are also considerable, such that the building, use, and operation of such installations will continue to be limited and restricted in the future.
In an attempt to solve that problem, at least to some extent, proposals have already been made to reduce the size of the device and of the building, and to reduce the operating costs of an installation for simulating free flight by making installations that are smaller in size and that operate in the open air. Such installations reduce building and operating costs in a non-negligible manner since there is no longer any need to make a closed enclosure that is several tens of meters tall. Nevertheless, they still require an infrastructure and a stationary base building to be provided so that the initial financial investment is still high.
Thus, the general trend in the art of making free flight simulators has been to further reduce the size of such installations so as to make installations that can be dismantled at least in part, that are small in size, and that are designed to levitate a limited number of people, and in practice only a single person.
Such small-sized installations are described, for example, in PCT Application No. WO 83/01380 which describes a free flight simulator that can be dismantled, comprising a chimney acting as a flight chamber beneath which there are disposed three blowers connected to the chamber by means of a connection duct of progressively tapering section. The installation implements a chimney of a diameter that is smaller than two meters, and in order to limit head losses it makes use of a precise upwardly-directed angular orientation of the blowers. Such an installation is indeed of reduced size, but it is correspondingly limited to training and levitating a single parachutist because of the limited capacity of the blower unit matched to the size of the chimney. An installation of that type therefore cannot be used as a demonstration installation forming part of a large-scale attraction and remains confined to individual use for training purposes only.
PCT Application No. WO 96/27866 describes an installation for artificially producing a levitation wind. Such an installation is fixed and unsuitable for being dismantled, and it comprises a series of blowers disposed around the flight chamber. The installation is not in any way intended for use as a demonstration area since it is closed. On the contrary, it is fitted with a computerized video system for the purpose of creating a virtual world around the user within the chamber itself.
British Patent Application No. 2,288,772 discloses a free flight simulation installation of small capacity and size which is suitable for being moved and dismantled. That patent application describes a free flight simulator installed and mounted on a traveling chassis fitted with wheels and including an open circuit free flight chamber connected by means of a duct forming substantially a 90° bend to a single blower that is unsuitable for dismantling and that is disposed beneath the chamber outside the levitation area. The suction and blow axis of the blower is substantially horizontal and is consequently disposed perpendicularly to the vertical levitation flow.
Because of the small flow of air generated by the blower, that installation is likewise restricted to training an individual parachutist, and cannot be integrated in and used in large-scale shows or demonstrations requiring a plurality of parachutists to be present simultaneously in the levitation wind.
Consequently, an object of the present invention is to remedy the above-mentioned prior art installations by proposing a novel high-power installation for the artificial production of a training and levitation wind of air flow rate and capacity that are large enough to enable a plurality of parachutists to be levitated simultaneously, while nevertheless being of a size, particularly of a height, that is limited so as to enable it to be easily transported and installed in existing entertainment halls or venues.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel free flight installation that can be easily and completely dismantled, while still being capable of delivering air at a high flow rate and remaining small in size and adaptable to the volume and space available in various entertainment venues.
An additional object of the present invention is to propose a novel free flight simulation installation of large capacity and of high air flow rate which is suitable, during a show, for providing spectators with good viewing and sound comfort.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel flight simulation installation of high power in which control of the levitation flow is optimized.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, these and other objects have now been realized by the discovery of apparatus for the production of a levitation wind comprising a flight chamber having a substantially vertical axis and defining a levitation area including a lower end defining an air inlet and a upper end defining an air outlet, a blower unit including a plurality of blowers connected in parallel so as to provide their combined flows to the air inlet of the flight chamber, each of the plurality of blowers being disposed outside of the levitation area, the blower unit having a delivery axis substantially perpendicular to the substantially vertical axis of the flight chamber, and an air coupling unit interposed between the air inlet of the flight chamber and the blower unit, the air coupling unit including a substantially 90° bend between the blower unit and the air inlet of the flight chamber, each of the plurality of blowers including a delivery outlet for removable connection to the air coupling unit. In a preferred embodiment, the blower unit has a predetermined height, and the flight chamber comprises a chimney having a predetermined diameter, the air inlet of the flight chamber being disposed at the level of a floor disposed a predetermined distance above the ground and surrounding the flight chamber whereby the air coupling unit can be at least partially disposed below the floor, the predetermined height of the floor being at le
Gillot Dominique
Godichon Alain
Ponsonnet Paul
Soleilhac Jean-Louis
ABB Solyvent-Ventec
Lerner David Littenberg Krumholz & Mentlik LLP
Nguyen Kien T.
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