Patent Application
20190118006
Not applicable.
The present invention relates in general to the field of aircraft. In particular, this invention relates to emergency egress equipment.
Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with a rotorcraft. One skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention may be used in conjunction with any aircraft.
One example of an aircraft is a rotorcraft. Existing methods and apparatuses for using one of more ropes for emergency egress from an aircraft typically include stowing emergency egress rope equipment in a bag or pouch at an accessible location on the aircraft. Such equipment is considered loose or portable equipment because it can be moved to a designated location and one end can be securely tethered to a structural component when it is needed. However, tethering the rope equipment when it is needed in an emergency costs valuable time, and the rope equipment may not be tethered as securely as it could be.
Methods and apparatuses for tethering emergency egress rope equipment securely before an emergency are desirable.
In some embodiments of the disclosure, an emergency egress system is disclosed as including a rope compartment, wherein the rope compartment is located on or near a vertical plane along a longitudinal axis of the vehicle, within reach of one or more occupant seats; a rope, wherein at least a portion of the rope is stored within the rope compartment and is securely tethered to a portion of a structure of the vehicle; and a rope compartment cover to secure the rope in the rope compartment. In one aspect, the rope is packed, loose, tied with a breakable or tearable material, stored in a bag or pouch. In one aspect the rope includes a flame-retardant material, a fluorescent material, a reflective material, or one or more light sources. In one aspect, the rope compartment includes one or more light sources. In one aspect, the rope compartment cover includes one or more light sources. In one aspect, the rope is securely tethered to at least a portion of the structure of the vehicle within the rope compartment or outside the rope compartment. In one aspect, one or more ropes are positioned within reach of every occupant seat.
In some embodiments of the disclosure, a method of supporting emergency egress from a vehicle is disclosed as including providing a rope in a rope compartment in an interior space of the vehicle on or near a vertical plane along a longitudinal axis of the vehicle, within reach of one or more occupant seats; permanently or semi-permanently securing the rope to a portion of a structure of the vehicle; and stowing at least a portion of the rope within the rope compartment. In one aspect, the rope is packed, loose, tied with a breakable or tearable material, stored in a bag or pouch. In one aspect, the rope includes a flame-retardant material, a fluorescent material, a reflective material, or one or more light sources. In one aspect, the rope compartment includes one or more light sources. In one aspect, the rope compartment includes one or more light sources. In one aspect, the rope is securely tethered to at least a portion of the structure of the vehicle within the rope compartment or outside the rope compartment. In one aspect, one or more ropes are positioned within reach of every occupant seat.
In some embodiments of the disclosure, an emergency egress kit is disclosed as including a rope compartment capable of being secured within an interior space of a vehicle on or near a vertical plane along a longitudinal axis of the vehicle, wherein the rope compartment is located within reach of one or more occupant seats; and a rope, wherein at least a portion of the rope is stored within the rope compartment and is capable of being securely tethered to a portion of a structure of the vehicle. In one aspect, one or more ropes are positioned within reach of every occupant seat. In one aspect, the rope is packed, loose, tied with a breakable or tearable material, stored in a bag or pouch. In one aspect, the rope includes a flame-retardant material, a fluorescent material, a reflective material, or one or more light sources. In one aspect, the kit further includes a rope compartment cover, wherein the rope compartment cover includes one or more light sources. In one aspect, the rope is securely tethered to at least a portion of a structure of the vehicle within the rope compartment or outside the rope compartment.
In some embodiments of the disclosure, a rotorcraft is disclosed as including a fuselage; one or more engines coupled to the fuselage; and at least one interior space including an emergency egress system, including a rope compartment, wherein the rope compartment is located on or near a vertical plane along a longitudinal axis of the rotorcraft, within reach of one or more occupant seats; a rope, wherein at least a portion of the rope is stored within the rope compartment and is securely tethered to a portion of a structure of the rotorcraft; and a rope compartment cover to secure the rope in the rope compartment. In one aspect, the rope is packed, loose, tied with a breakable or tearable material, or stored in a bag or pouch. In one aspect, the rope includes a flame-retardant material, a fluorescent material, a reflective material, or one or more light sources. In one aspect, the rope compartment cover includes one or more light sources. In one aspect, the rope is securely tethered to at least a portion of the structure of the vehicle within the rope compartment or outside the rope compartment. In one aspect, one or more ropes are positioned within reach of every occupant seat. In addition to the foregoing, various other method, system, and apparatus aspects are set forth in the teachings of the present disclosure, such as the claims, text, and drawings forming a part of the present disclosure.
The foregoing is a summary and thus contains, by necessity, simplifications, generalizations, and omissions of detail. Consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that this summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. There aspects, features, and advantages of the devices, processes, and other subject matter described herein will be become apparent in the teachings set forth herein.
For a more complete understanding of the features and advantages of the present invention, reference is now made to the detailed description of the invention along with the accompanying figures, in which:
Illustrative embodiments of the system of the present application are described below. In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. It will of course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiment, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
In the specification, reference may be made to the spatial relationships between various components and to the spatial orientation of various aspects of components as the devices are depicted in the attached drawings. However, as will be recognized by those skilled in the art after a complete reading of the present application, the devices, members, apparatuses, etc. described herein may be positioned in any desired orientation. Thus, the use of terms such as “above,” “below,” “upper,” “lower,” or other like terms to describe a spatial relationship between various components or to describe the spatial orientation of aspects of such components should be understood to describe a relative relationship between the components or a spatial orientation of aspects of such components, respectively, as the device described herein may be oriented in any desired direction.
For example,
In typical practice now, emergency egress rope equipment is stored in a pouch or a bag at a designated location on the aircraft, such as near a crew member or near an exit. During or after an emergency landing, the equipment would have to be located and the rope tethered securely to major element of aircraft structure using, e.g., a carabiner or other similar attachment device. During an emergency, the bag or pouch may be dislodged, or it might not have been stowed properly or in the correct location in the first place. In any event, the bag might be misplaced or lost in an emergency. Further, the rope might not be tethered securely during or after an emergency, and tethering it during or after the emergency uses valuable time.
In an embodiment, the rope 130, which is any elongated, flexible device, including one or more strips or strands of material that is affixed to the aircraft, is stored within the compartment 140. The strips or strands can be twisted, braided, intertwined, or otherwise bound together to form a rope. In one embodiment, the rope includes material or materials sufficiently strong and is sized to meet regulatory requirements for bearing a load. In one embodiment of the present invention, the rope 130 is long enough to reach from the secure tethering point through an egress opening to the ground on which the vehicle rests, for example, for a Bell 525 helicopter, about 20 feet long.
The rope 130 is a packed rope, a loose rope, a rope that is tied with a string or tied with a breakable or tearable material such as safety tape, or may even be stored in a bag or pouch inside a rope compartment, and the bag or pouch may have a tearable or breakable feature such as a seam to make opening it easier. In an embodiment, the rope 130 is made of flame-retardant material, such as the material used for firefighters' rope, including for example, aramid or para-aramid materials such as nylon, KEVLAR®, or TECHNORA®. In one embodiment, the rope 130 may also include a reflective or fluorescent material to provide a visual aid for egress and to meet regulatory requirements for light at the place the rope reaches the ground outside the vehicle. In embodiments in which the rope 130 includes fluorescent material, a light source can be installed in the rope compartment to charge the fluorescence. In another embodiment, the rope 130 can include one or more LEDs, light bulbs, or other light sources, strung together and braided into the rope 130, such that at least a portion of the rope 130 provides a source of illumination.
In one embodiment, the rope 130 is one of a plurality of ropes, stored together in a single rope compartment 140 or in some combination of rope compartments 140. In an embodiment, the rope 130 has a single securely tethered end and a plurality of branches branching out from the single securely tethered end or from a point near that end.
In one embodiment, the rope 130 may also be made of a soft material to reduce or prevent injuries to occupants using the rope, such as rope burn, or the rope 130 may include a sleeve with bumps, steps, or grip points to aid in egress or ingress.
Within or near the rope compartment, one end of the rope 130 is securely tethered during normal, non-emergency operations to a portion of the structure of the helicopter 100 such as the forward lift frame (not shown). The present invention permits a reasonably accessible, stationary location for the rope 130, secure tethering of the rope 130 to the helicopter 100 before an emergency rather than during or after an emergency, thus saving time during or after an emergency. In one embodiment, an end of the rope 130 that is not securely tethered to a portion of the structure of the vehicle is attached to the cover 136 of the rope compartment 140 such that opening the cover 136 places the untethered end of the rope 130 near at hand for the occupant 133 opening the compartment, or the rope 130 may partially deploy when the cover 136 is opened, speeding the process of deploying the rope 130 from the rope compartment 140 for use.
In one embodiment, the rope compartment cover 136 is detachable and may also serve as a weight on the end of the rope 130 that is not securely tethered to a portion of the structure of the vehicle, e.g., to aid in throwing the unsecured end of the rope out of the vehicle. In other embodiments, an end of the rope 130 that is not securely tethered to a portion of the structure of the vehicle is weighted with an object such as a sandbag to aid in throwing the untethered end of the rope out of the vehicle. In other embodiments, the rope compartment cover 136 remains attached to or near the rope compartment 140 after the rope 130 is deployed from the rope compartment 140. The rope compartment cover 136 may also include a source of illumination, such that vehicle occupants can see the ground and area surrounding the vehicle, e.g., light-emitting diodes, fluorescent lights, or incandescent lights. Such a source of illumination may be manually activated or automatically activated by, e.g., opening or removing the rope compartment cover 136. The rope compartment cover 136 is held shut with the rope 130 within by a variety of mechanisms, such as one or more latches or VELCRO® patches. The rope compartment cover 136 may bear instructions for use of the present invention.
In one embodiment of the present invention, an emergency egress kit includes the rope 130, a compartment 140, and a compartment cover 136. Such a kit may be included integrally within the vehicle or attached to the interior of a compartment of the vehicle.
The rope compartment 140 may be located at various places within the interior of a vehicle, such as the passenger compartment or the crew compartment. It is located within reach of the smallest reasonably expected occupant within the vehicle in any orientation in an emergency landing, for example, on or in an overhead headliner panel 138 on the vertical plane along the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, as illustrated herein. The rope compartment 140 can be integrated with other features of the vehicle such as the ceiling panels of an interior space, or it can be attached separately to one or more features of the vehicle, for example, bolted to the ceiling of an interior space.
In one embodiment, the helicopter 100 may have one or more sensors to detect when the helicopter 100 is on its side and to turn on emergency lights to shows the one or more push-out windows 132 or the rope compartment cover 136 or to open the rope compartment cover 136. In another embodiment, the one or more sensors may be included in the compartment cover 136.
The skilled artisan will recognize that the present invention can be used in a variety of vehicles such as helicopter 100, tiltrotor aircraft, and fixed-wing aircraft, to list some non-limiting examples.
It will be understood that particular embodiments described herein are shown by way of illustration and not as limitations of the invention. The principal features of this invention can be employed in various embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, numerous equivalents to the specific procedures described herein. Such equivalents are considered to be within the scope of this invention and are covered by the claims.
All publications and patent applications mentioned in the specification are indicative of the level of skill of those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains. All publications and patent applications are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.
The use of the word “a” or “an” when used in conjunction with the term “comprising” in the claims and/or the specification may mean “one,” but it is also consistent with the meaning of “one or more,” “at least one,” and “one or more than one.” The use of the term “or” in the claims is used to mean “and/or” unless explicitly indicated to refer to alternatives only or the alternatives are mutually exclusive, although the disclosure supports a definition that refers to only alternatives and “and/or.” Throughout this application, the term “about” is used to indicate that a value includes the inherent variation of error for the device, the method being employed to determine the value, or the variation that exists among the study subjects.
As used in this specification and claim(s), the words “comprising” (and any form of comprising, such as “comprise” and “comprises”), “having” (and any form of having, such as “have” and “has”), “including” (and any form of including, such as “includes” and “include”) or “containing” (and any form of containing, such as “contains” and “contain”) are inclusive or open-ended and do not exclude additional, unrecited elements or method steps. In embodiments of any of the compositions and methods provided herein, “comprising” may be replaced with “consisting essentially of” or “consisting of.” As used herein, the phrase “consisting essentially of” requires the specified integer(s) or steps as well as those that do not materially affect the character or function of the claimed invention. As used herein, the term “consisting” is used to indicate the presence of the recited integer (e.g., a feature, an element, a characteristic, a property, a method/process step, or a limitation) or group of integers (e.g., feature(s), element(s), characteristic(s), property(ies), method/process(s) steps, or limitation(s)) only.
The term “or combinations thereof” as used herein refers to all permutations and combinations of the listed items preceding the term. For example, “A, B, C, or combinations thereof” is intended to include at least one of: A, B, C, AB, AC, BC, or ABC, and if order is important in a particular context, also BA, CA, CB, CBA, BCA, ACB, BAC, or CAB. Continuing with this example, expressly included are combinations that contain repeats of one or more item or term, such as BB, AAA, AB, BBC, AAABCCCC, CBBAAA, CABABB, and so forth. The skilled artisan will understand that typically there is no limit on the number of items or terms in any combination, unless otherwise apparent from the context.
As used herein, words of approximation such as, without limitation, “about,” “substantial” or “substantially” refers to a condition that when so modified is understood to not necessarily be absolute or perfect but would be considered close enough to those of ordinary skill in the art to warrant designating the condition as being present. The extent to which the description may vary will depend on how great a change can be instituted and still have one of ordinary skill in the art recognize the modified feature as still having the required characteristics and capabilities of the unmodified feature. In general, but subject to the preceding discussion, a numerical value herein that is modified by a word of approximation such as “about” may vary from the stated value by at least ±1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12 or 15%.
All of the devices and/or methods disclosed and claimed herein can be made and executed without undue experimentation in light of the present disclosure. While the devices and/or methods of this invention have been described in terms of particular embodiments, it will be apparent to those of skill in the art that variations may be applied to the compositions and/or methods and in the steps or in the sequence of steps of the method described herein without departing from the concept, spirit and scope of the invention. All such similar substitutes and modifications apparent to those skilled in the art are deemed to be within the spirit, scope, and concept of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
Furthermore, no limitations are intended to the details of construction or design herein shown, other than as described in the claims below. It is therefore evident that the particular embodiments disclosed above may be altered or modified and all such variations are considered within the scope and spirit of the disclosure. Accordingly, the protection sought herein is as set forth in the claims below.
Modifications, additions, or omissions may be made to the systems and apparatuses described herein without departing from the scope of the invention. The components of the systems and apparatuses may be integrated or separated. Moreover, the operations of the systems and apparatuses may be performed by more, fewer, or other components. The methods may include more, fewer, or other steps. Additionally, steps may be performed in any suitable order.
To aid the Patent Office, and any readers of any patent issued on this application in interpreting the claims appended hereto, applicants wish to note that they do not intend any of the appended claims to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) as it exists on the date of filing hereof unless the words “means for” or “step for” are explicitly used in the particular claim.
This patent application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/575,185 filed on Oct. 20, 2017 entitled “Egress Equipment,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62575185 | Oct 2017 | US |
