Modular trim paneling and outfitting system for an aircraft...

Aeronautics and astronautics – Aircraft structure – Fuselage and body construction

Reexamination Certificate

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C244S120000, C244S118500

Reexamination Certificate

active

06547184

ABSTRACT:

PRIORITY CLAIM
This application is based on and claims the priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 of German Patent Application 100 29 369.7, filed on Jun. 15, 2000, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a modular system of trim paneling components and outfitting components, e.g. furnishings or accessories such as luggage bins or hat racks, for paneling and outfitting the interior of a passenger cabin of an aircraft.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
It is generally known to provide a variety of trim components including side wall panels, lower wall or dado panels, ceiling panels, light-covers, joint or transition trim strips, and the like, as well as outfitting components such as baggage compartments or luggage stowage bins, which are generally also called hat racks. Conventionally, a specialized set of such trim components and outfitting components is particularly designed for each specific type of aircraft, whereby an aircraft type is defined by its fuselage cross-sectional shape and size.
The aircraft manufacturers as well as the airlines are constantly striving to provide improved passenger comfort in the aircraft passenger cabins, which constantly makes greater demands on all of the cabin components, including the trim components and the outfitting components. Moreover, it is desired by aircraft manufacturers and by the airlines operating the aircraft, to achieve a high degree of commonality of various components among the different individual aircraft types produced by a given aircraft manufacturer, in order to reduce the required inventory of spare parts or replacement parts, to allow a uniform maintenance schedule and procedure for all of the aircraft types, and to reduce the variety of different components that must be manufactured.
A further essential criteria for the product philosophy of an aircraft manufacturer is to achieve a common or uniform appearance and image, e.g. a so-called “corporate identity”, among all of the aircraft types of this manufacturer. On the other hand, the airlines operating the aircraft desire a certain degree of design flexibility to establish their own desired uniform appearance, image, or “corporate identity” of the airline, independently of the particular manufacturer of the aircraft and independently of the aircraft type. In other words, the aircraft manufacturer aims to achieve a certain degree of commonality among all aircraft types in its product range, while the airline aims to achieve a certain degree of commonality among all the aircraft in its fleet, which may include aircraft of different types and different manufacturers.
As an example, the Airbus aircraft of the single aisle family, such as the A320 aircraft, have a cabin cross-sectional contour that expands or widens upwardly, to provide a large ceiling surface with a spacious open feeling, as well as an effective ceiling surface area to be used as an indirect lighting reflector to provide general lighting of the cabin. Furthermore, this characteristic feature has also been provided in the passenger cabin of the Airbus twin-aisle aircraft types, such as the A330/A340 aircraft.
Further in this regard,
FIG. 1A
schematically shows a cross-section through an aircraft fuselage
1
′ of the single aisle type having a relatively small fuselage diameter, while
FIG. 1B
schematically shows a cross-section through the fuselage
3
′ of an aircraft of the twin-aisle type with a relatively larger diameter. It can be seen in
FIGS. 1A and 1B
, that the passenger cabin
2
′ of the smaller aircraft
1
′ and the passenger cabin
4
′ of the larger aircraft
3
′ share certain common features of the overall appearance, such as the general appearance of the overhead hat racks or stowage bins, and the over-aisle head room that widens upwardly to an enlarged ceiling panel area. These cross-sectional views of
FIGS. 1A and 1B
further generally show the shapes of various components within the cabins, such as the hat racks, ceiling panels, side wall panels, and dado panels, which are also schematically shown in the chart or table of FIG.
1
C. From
FIGS. 1A
,
1
B and
1
C, it becomes apparent that various differently configured trim components and outfitting components are respectively used for the smaller fuselage
1
′ of type I and for the larger fuselage
3
′ of type II, respectively, for achieving the above-mentioned generally similar appearance features of the two cabins
2
′ and
4
′. The table of
FIG. 1C
summarizes how many of each of the trim components and outfitting components of type I and type II are used in a typical cross-section of the two different aircraft types
1
′ and
3
′. For example, a typical cross-section of the fuselage
1
′ includes two of the type I hat racks, one of the type I ceiling panels, two of the type I side wall panels, and two of the type I dado panels, while a typical cross-section of the fuselage
3
′ includes two of the type II hat racks, one of the type II center hat racks, two of the type II ceiling panels, two of the type II side wall panels, and two of the type II dado panels.
It is apparent that the various components of type I and of type II are somewhat similar in shape, size and configuration with respect to each other, but are not identical. As a result, it is necessary to manufacture and inventory each of these parts with its own particular configuration for each of the fuselage types I and II independently. As a further result, in the conventional manner of carrying out a design of a new cabin layout, it has been necessary to individually and independently design all of the necessary trim components and outfitting components separately for this new cabin design, whereby the trim and outfitting components will have specialized configurations (e.g. dimensions and shapes) especially adapted to the particular new cabin design. This leads to great costs and expenditure of time for carrying out a new cabin design. Especially when the product range or product pallet of the manufacturer includes several different aircraft types, it becomes very costly and time consuming, because a completely new design and development of all the cabin interior components is necessary for each respective aircraft type of this product pallet. An example is the Airbus product range including the above mentioned aircraft, among others, as well as the new A380 passenger transport aircraft under development, with a still larger fuselage cross-section and two through-going passenger decks.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above, it is an object of the invention to provide an aircraft passenger cabin of the above described general type, and particularly to provide a system of trim components and outfitting components for such a passenger cabin, such that these components are modularly useable in plural differently-sized aircraft types of a given aircraft manufacturer. Therewith, the invention further aims to reduce the time required for designing a new cabin layout, while also achieving improved uniformity in maintenance procedures and a reduced inventory requirement for replacement parts. The invention further aims to avoid or overcome the disadvantages of the prior art, and to achieve additional advantages as apparent from the present specification.
The above objects have been achieved according to the invention in a passenger cabin of a passenger transport aircraft, including trim components and outfitting components installed in the interior of the passenger cabin, with at least one modular interior component, for example a hat rack (or stowage bin), a side wall panel, a lower wall or dado panel, a lateral light cover, a ceiling panel, a window funnel, and a junction area or gap trim component. This cabin interior component is utilizable in common in various different aircraft types having different fuselage cross-sectional sizes, whereby the interior component or components can be assembled together in a modular fashion t

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