GB1104657A - Improvements in or relating to air cushion borne vehicle skirts - Google Patents

Abstract

1,104,657. Air cushion vehicles. BRITISH HOVERCRAFT CORPORATION Ltd. 15 July, 1966 [19 Aug., 1965], No. 35716/65. Heading B7K. [Also in Division E2] An air-cushion-borne vehicle skirt includes a plurality of sheets of flexible material joined together in edge-to-edge relationship, the join between two sheets 1, 2 comprising a series of loops along an edge portion of each of the sheets, with the loops of the two series being disposed in interdigitated relationship, and a flexible pin 5 passed through the loops of both series to join the two sheets together, each loop of each of said two sheets being formed by a strip la or 2a of the material of the sheet. As described the loops are wrapped around a respective P-section member 3, 4 and are secured by adhesive and/or stitching or rivetting. The pin 5 is made of wire or nylon rod or is a closely wound wire spring. In one construction described in addition to the sheet 2, a sheet 7 is also secured to the sheet 1 alongside the sheet 2 by a second flexible pin 8 which passes through alternate loops of the sheets 1 and 7; to enable the pins to be removed each pin is provided with a loop of cord 6, 9 so that the pin can be removed by pulling the cord. Alternatively each pin can be cranked so that the cranked portion projects from the join between the two sheets 2 and 7. The sheets 2 and 7 can also have their adjacent edges joined by loops and a pin similar to the pins 5 and 8. A construction is described. Fig. 5, in which there are a plurality of sheets 2<SP>1</SP> and a plurality of sheets 7<SP>1</SP> each sheet being part of a pocket 14 which consists of the sheet 21 or 71, two parallel vertical webs 15 of flexible material and a curved member 16, the pockets being arranged side-by-side and connected to the sheet 1 which is shown attached by its upper edge to the upper edge of a body 11 of an aircushion-borne vehicle the lower edges of the sheets being attached at the periphery of the vehicle by ties 12; the inner curved members 16 of the pockets are secured by their other edges to the vehicle body 11 and together form a flexible inner wall 17 of the vehicle skirt, this wall extending downwardly and outwardly from the underside of the peripheral part of the vehicle body 11; the sheets 2<SP>1</SP> and 7<SP>1</SP> making up an outer flexible wall 13 of the skirt are secured along their other edges to the sheet 1 by flexible pins and loops as previously described.