Patent Application
20150203202
This disclosure relates generally to devices, systems and methods for selectively delivering water, other liquids, other solids and/or other materials to a target location. More particularly, this disclosure relates to devices, systems and methods for selectively delivering fire suppressant from airborne vehicles.
Conventionally, to fight wild fires, aircraft are used to deploy water and fire retardant chemicals at or around the wild fire to contain the wild fire or put out the wild fire. To this end, the aircraft flies very close to the ground location or target location to ensure that the water and fire retardant chemicals dispersed in the air reach the target location. If the aircraft is too high above the target location, then the dispersed water and/or fire retardant chemicals may be blown over a large area so that its concentration may be ineffective at containing the fire or putting out the fire. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for devices, systems and methods for selectively delivering water and fire retardant chemicals a target location.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,480,035 discloses a system to disperse fire suppressant directly from containers, delivered by military transport aircraft. Although the system disclosed in the '035 patent is an improvement over other conventional systems, substantial effort is required to rig and check the payload in the aircraft prior to take off resulting in considerable down time in an operational day, which limits the number of sorties the aircraft can make.
Another conventional system disperses fire suppressant chemical directly from an aircraft which can be pumped directly on to the aircraft to minimize turn round time. However, this system suffers from the time delay required to convert the aircraft to the new role and the cleaning operation required to remove fire suppressant chemical from the exterior of the aircraft is intense.
The subject system reduces the turn round time for rigging gravity extracted payload. The system utilizes a cartridge to preload the containers and the expended cartridge remains after gravity extraction. Ground operations are limited to extraction of the empty cartridge and replenishment with a full cartridge, potentially doubling the number of air drops that may be conducted in a day, without specialized role fit, both of which have benefit in time and resource critical operations such as forest fire suppression.
An aerial delivery system for use with aircraft having a rear ramp and a cargo handling system. The aerial delivery system includes a cartridge base platform and a ramp platform. The cartridge base platform locks to the aircraft cargo handling system and the ramp platform locks to the aircraft ramp. A restraint subsystem restrains one or more cargo containers positioned on the cartridge base platform.
The cartridge base platform includes a delivery platform having interface elements to interact with the aircraft's cargo handling system.
The cartridge base platform also includes at least one conveyor extending longitudinally along a top surface of the delivery platform and multiple side guidance elements extending from the delivery platform top surface adjacent to the conveyor.
The conveyor comprises at least one set of roller conveyors, which may be removable and/or configurable for different payloads.
The cartridge base platform also includes attachments for restraint straps.
The conveyor may convey a single column of cargo containers and include first and second sets of roller conveyors, with the second set of roller conveyors being adjacent and parallel to the first set of roller conveyors.
The guidance elements for single conveyor may include first and second rows of rotating bollards that are adjacent to outer edges of the conveyor.
The cartridge base platform may include first and second conveyors that convey two columns of cargo containers, with the second conveyor being adjacent and parallel to the first conveyor. Each conveyor includes at least one set of roller conveyors.
The guidance elements for the twin conveyors may include first, second, third and fourth rows of rotating bollards. The first row of bollards are adjacent to an outer edge of the first conveyor, the second row of bollards are adjacent to an inner edge of the first conveyor, the third row of bollards are adjacent to an inner edge of the second conveyor and the fourth row of bollards are adjacent to an outer edge of the second conveyor.
The side guidance elements may comprise rails having a low friction surface disposed adjacent the conveyor.
The ramp platform includes a delivery platform may have interface elements that interact with the ramp's cargo handling system.
The ramp platform may also include at least one conveyor extending longitudinally along a top surface of the delivery platform and multiple side guidance elements extending from the delivery platform top surface adjacent to the conveyor.
The restraint subsystem includes multiple webbing straps, multiple clevises, multiple tensioning devices and multiple release mechanisms.
The release mechanisms may be wireless gate releases.
The present disclosure may be better understood and its numerous objects and advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
With reference to the drawings wherein like numerals represent like parts throughout the several figures, an aerial delivery system in accordance with the present disclosure is generally designated by the numeral 10. With reference to
The cartridge base platform 12 includes an aerial delivery platform 20 having conventional interface elements (not shown), allowing the platform 20 to interact with the aircraft's cargo handling system 22. In the example shown in
The embodiment shown in
The ramp platform 14,
The restraint subsystem 16,
The restraint subsystem 16 may include wireless gate releases (WGRs) to allow release of straps via remote command. Another embodiment makes use of conventional CDS airdrop techniques, using guillotine knifes attached to the static line retrieval winch. Straps may need separate provisions such as elastic bungee cords to move the released straps out of the way of moving payloads to prevent fouls.
Typically in operation, fire suppressant containers 18 are loaded onto the cartridge 10, for example the eight Caylym Guardian™ fire suppressant containers shown in
The rigged cartridge 10 is then loaded onto the aircraft 48 using conventional ground handling equipment,
In order to provide roller continuity across the ramp 40, the system 10 also requires a ramp platform 14 to be loaded and locked to the cargo handling system 22 on the aircraft ramp 40,
Upon arrival at the drop zone (
Conventional container delivery system airdrop requires restraint straps be applied after the cargo is loaded into the aircraft. This is followed by an extensive inspection. Both these operations are time consuming and must be completed before the aircraft can depart on the next sortie. The subject system 10 allows the rigging and inspection to be conducted ahead of time before the aircraft arrives, reducing the amount of time the aircraft spends on the ground between missions.
It will be appreciated that various of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Any bulk cargo airdrop where rapid turn around is required could be addressed. For example, distributing enzyme to control ‘Red tide’, deploying survival equipment or shark repellant dye to aid search and rescue efforts in a maritime disaster, or distributing herbicide on illegal crops could be addressed. Also that various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
