GB768066A - An appliance for the braking of aircraft on landing or the launching of aircraft - Google Patents

Abstract

768,066. Launching aircraft and stopping way. SOC. DES FORGES ET ATELIERS DU CREUSOT, and FIEUX, J. March 15, 1955 [March 29, 1954 ; Feb. 28, 1955], No. 7538/55. Class 4. [Also in Group XXIX] Apparatus for braking aircraft on landing or for launching aircraft, of the type having a cable disposed a small distance above the ground, comprises a hydro-pneumatic device operable as a prime mover or dashpot, constituted by a cylinder 1, Fig. 1, containing a piston 2 subject to pressure from liquid supplied from a reservoir 28 containing gas under pressure, the piston being secured to the movable block 12 of a primary tackle having a fixed block 11 and two cables 9, 9a connected to the movable blocks 14, 14a of two secondary tackles having for cables the two ends of a single cable 20, (Figs. 3 and 6,) guided by pulleys 22, 22a, 23, 24, 25 to assume the shape of a parallelogram. In Figs. 1 and 3, the cables 9, 9a are fixed to lugs 10 on the movable block, being taken round pulleys 11, 12, 11 again, 12 again, and then guided by pulleys 13 to the movable blocks 14, 14a. The ends of cable 20 are tied to blocks 14, 14a and are led round pulleys 18, 19 and 18a, 19a, then pulleys 21, 21a and 22, 22a, and round pulleys 23-25 in square formation. When a landing aircraft engages one side of this square, the pull on cable 20 contracts the secondary tackles 15, 15a, and thus the primary tackle, pushing piston 2 into cylinder 1, and forcing liquid past ball valve 29 into the reservoir against the gas pressure. The device is then ready for launching an aircraft as shown in Fig. 6. In this case, a valve 35 is opened to raise a hydraulic jack 30, opening the ball valve 29 to push out piston 2. This expands the primary and secondary tackles, to take in the slack of cable 20 at a rapid rate. For two successive brakings, the cable slack caused by the first braking is taken up slowly by opening a valve 32 of small aperture. For two successive launchings, a pump 33 is used to transfer liquid from the cylinder 1 to the reservoir, to slacken the cables, to permit the disposition of Fig. 6 to be regained. An alternative construction, Figs. 7 and 8 (not shown) ensures that if, e.g., the cable 20 becomes unhooked during a launch, the rate of taking in cable 20 drops to a safe value [see Group XXIX].