Patent Application
20080179462
The present invention generally relates to an inflatable jump suit, for use in slowing decent from a height with small open spaces between building or as a recreation device. The present invention is well suited for use in emergency situations where individuals can become trapped in tall building with limited access to safety, save by jumping out of a building opening or building top.
Inflatable and non-inflatable parachutes have been available for some time. Some inflatable parachutes for use as escape or sporting device use a parachute canopy supported by an inflatable frame consisting of a network of inflatable lightweight flexible tubes. Bottled air or gas may be utilized to inflate the device through an inflation valve provided thereon. A restraining belt permits pre-inflation of the framework such that upon release the canopy expands almost instantaneously by the straightening of folded flexible tubes. While good in expansive open spaces away from building, this device may get caught up or entangled in the building across the street, introducing risk of dire consequences to the jumper. Moreover, control strings must be pulled and let go, structures must be avoided, etc, lending this type of arrangement to require the user to be trained in the art of jumping, something not everyone wants to do or should be required.
Other inventions offer seat harness for parachute of the type having a flexible wing allow the parachutist to a parachute with a flexible wing, controllable through modification of the shape of the aerodynamic surface plane by displacement of user center of gravity G. This invention requires skill and training to master, and many cannot or would not use this under emergency circumstances. Some horizontal support or seat attaching vertical straps or principal elevator for piloting. These provide a harness for the wing but also require flight and landing practice and skill, not something everybody wants to pursue.
Some devices provide aerial floating flier such as airfoil or a parachute is folded and contained in a case, and by throwing out such a case or an aerial floating flier in folded state into the air, the aerial floating flier is spread in the air, thereby allowing to escape from a site of an accident by hanging from the aerial floating flier and descend slowly on the ground. This has the same deficiencies as the above, necessity for skill, training, knowledge and practice.
What is needed is a device to slow decent from a height, one that requires a minimum of knowledge, skill, training and courage, and has some redundancy in the descent mechanisms for added safety.
Some building emergency escape devices disclose tube conduits into a water tank located at the bottom of the tube, and a parachute inside the tube for controlling the velocity of the descending person. By raising the water level above the tube exit, air is trapped between the water and the parachute, thereby providing the upward pressure on the parachute during the descent. While eminently doable, this method suffers an economic down side to the building owner, who must pay for an expensive escape device despite the fact that an emergency scenario may never arise.
Some decent slowing devices include accelerating the opening and/or extension for aviation devices, such as canopy parachutes, square or sliding parachutes, gliders, and other devices for accelerating the opening and/or the extension of aviation devices. Some designed air space form claim the a hose or an air-impervious hem which is under high air pressure in operative conditions, so that when the wrapper is opened this air space stretches out in a very short time and the aviation device opens after a fall of only 20-30 meters. These may employs a plurality of tubular of air chambers connected at their sides, these air chambers being typically open at their one end and closed at their other end and connected to a harness. These devices suffer from all of the deficiencies cited above, that skill is required, that the use may collide with a structure nearby during decent, not usable in tight small open space city situations.
Some wing design provide no framing to maintain its spanned out shape under the loading of flying lines by increased aerodynamic forces at wing tips achieved from making the aerofoil profiles of the cells progressively more reflexive towards wing tips, by giving wing tips a residual twist increasing their angle of incidence, by placing the centers of pressure of the cells near wing tips somewhat forward of the pivot line of the wing, etc. These require that the total payload weight is carried by the wing, forcing the wing to be much larger and less usable in tight open spaces between buildings. Inflating a large wing from ram air adds the risk of exceeding time allotted for initializing and stabilizing decent. Large wing structures also are more easily collapsible and during the worst possible times. What is needed is a smaller wing, shorter inflation time but less risk in decent into an adjacent building and landing velocities higher than bone cracking.
What is needed is device that reduces decent from a height with urban lateral clearances, providing a decent from a height that does not reach terminal velocities that will injure the jumper. Such escape suits should be affordable to tall building owners and occupiers, but not require training or skill from trapped occupants.
The present invention discloses an inflatable parasail jump suit combination complete with an inflatable parasail, an inflatable jump suit with outside and inside, at least one inflator device for storing and releasing pressurized gas into the parasail and suit upon activation, and attachments coupling suit to parasail providing sail support to suit upon suspension in air. Spiral trajectory collision avoidance and rotational cushioning at the bottom allows a user wearing suit to safely jump from a minimum height and be protected from a lethal impact, relying on parasail glide and lighter than air gas to slow decent, and conversion of vertical drop to rotational energy for impact reduction
Specific embodiments of the invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying figures.
In the following detailed description of embodiments of the invention, specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the invention.
However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the invention may be practiced without these specific details in lieu of substitutes. In other instances, well-known features have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily duplication and complication.
The present invention provides an escape apparatus, enabling an individual in time of crisis to escape an impending disaster while trapped at a dangerously elevated height. Such an individual can don the invention suit and take suit accessories, initiate the inflation of and throw themselves into free fall, thus escaping the impending disaster by descending to the ground at a rate which can be decelerated without harm to the jumper.
The present invention uses at least five mechanisms to slow descent, and decelerate jumper; lighter than air gas for buoyancy, small parasail to slow descent, bursting gas sub-compartments for deceleration of impact, advantageous use of inflatable advantage on ground for added padding, and rotational landing dynamics to translate vertical descent kinetic energy to inertial rotational kinetic energy for impact time dilation.
The detailed description is described in the figures and in the paragraphs following.
The parasail 101 provides descent support to the suit in suspension, slowing but not necessarily totally supplying all of the lift for slowing descent. The inflatable suit filled with lighter than air gas is expandable, made of material capable of some expansion or designed for sufficient volume to supply some buoyancy to the jumper, but not necessarily all of the buoyancy needed for reversing descent. The inner 113 and outer suit 111 need not be of the same material, as they have slightly different functions and weight, strength, density, stretch expandability etc will be factors in their design. whereby a user wearing suit can safely jump from a minimum height and be protected
The cells 401 and layers 403 can be of most any light and gas internally pressurizable material, capable of deformation from external pressure and rupture at a design pressure. Only three layers 403 are shown but more can be added. The top layer will have a plate structure which integrates the ruptures of the group of cells and distributes the pressure over time of rupturing and area above all the cells.
Therefore, while the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this invention, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised which do not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed herein. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by the attached claims. Other aspects of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the appended claims.
