GB2278094A - Apparatus and method for delivering air-drop supplies - Google Patents

Abstract

An air-drop carton comprising a plurality of sachets 10, each individually containing food, medical supplies or other aid-related contents 18 in (for example) granular - particularly powdered - form, and a wrapper which packages the sachets to form and define the so-called carton; is characterized by the features: a) that each sachet is so sized, shaped and filled or part-filled that, when released from the confines of the wrapper at air-drop altitudes, it tends to feather-fall rather than free-fall earthwards, and b) that the wrapper is so constituted, and so arranged about its sachets, that whilst it tends to hold the sachets in their cartoned format as they sit in an aircraft immediately prior to being air-dropped, it is designed to disintegrate from that format sufficiently to release the sachets for individual flight as or shortly after the carton leaves the aircraft. The sachet 10 may bear an elongate streamer 24 and may comprise several compartments. The sachet may incorporate light-emitting means, minature transmitting devices or radar scattering means such as a length of lightweight metal foil. It is only partially filled by the contents 18 leaving an air space 20 to enable the impact of landing to be absorbed without bursting the sachet. <IMAGE>

Description

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DELIVERING AIR-DROP SUPPLIES Field of the Invention The present invention relates to apparatus for and a method of dropping aid supplies from aircraft. It relates particularly to the dropping of supplies in the form of, for example, food, fuel, medical supplies or the like, onto areas where such supplies are required.

Background to the Invention As a result of extensive news coverage, most people are familiar with the problems of delivering relief supplies to those in need. These problems are typified by those experienced in Bosnia and particularly in the agonising delay in feeding besieged towns such as Maglaj, Mosdar and Gorazde. Until now, the only means of getting supplies to starving populations was by road convoy or by air-dropping supplies into the surrounding area.

In many cases, road access is just not possible which means that supplies must be delivered by air if they are to reach those in need at all. Conventionally, dropping supplies from an aircraft involves either delivering bulk loads by parachute from air-drop altitudes or flying low over the drop zone and allowing the aid packages to fall to the ground from the aircraft under gravity.

There are many problems associated with either of these methods of dropping supplies. There is a danger of injury to persons in the area in which the supplies are dropped, loss of goods supplied due to packages breaking open on impact as well as the administrative burden on the ground of ensuring the equitable apportionment of the aid e.g. food from such bulk loads of supplies. For example, in May 1993 six people were killed and eight were injured after aid crates were parachuted in Srebrenica and Gorazde. At one drop zone a woman and child lay dead beneath a pallet and five people were killed in the fight for the aid supplies around a parachute. Many deserving cases never receive the aid at all. Furthermore, supplies dropped by parachute are dropped from aircraft relatively high above the ground.

The drop height may also be increased if there is a danger of ground attack.

As a result of the height above ground from which such bulk loads are dropped, inaccuracies in the position at which these loads reach the ground can result.

So in summary, present methods of aid distribution from the air suffer from one or more of the following drawbacks: (i) loss or damage to the aid on impact; (ii) aid missing the destination zone and as a result not reaching those in need, or worse still, falling into the wrong hands; (iii) death or injury to personnel on the ground; (iv) panic or violence associated with aid distribution.

The object of the present invention is to overcome the problems associated with conventional methods of dropping supplies from aircraft, and avoid the risk to the delivery aircraft of low level drops in hostile environments.

Furthermore, it is intended to prevent the recipients being required to brave the debris of flying pallets or having to gather spillage or carry large parcels to safety.

Summarv of the Invention According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an air drop carton comprising a plurality of sachets, each individually containing food, medical supplies or other aid-related contents in (for example) granular - particularly powdered - form, and a wrapper which packages the sachets to form and define this so-called carton; characterised by the features: (a) that each sachet is so sized, shaped and filled or part-filled that, when released from the confines of the wrapper at air-drop altitudes, it tends to feather-fall rather than free-fall earthwards, and (b) that the wrapper is so constituted, and so arranged about its sachets, that whilst it tends to hold the sachets in their cartoned format as they sit in an aircraft immediately prior to being air-dropped, it is designed to disintegrate from that format sufficiently to release the sachets for individual flight as or shortly after the carton leaves the aircraft.

According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a method of air-dropping food, medical supplies or other aid-related contents, characterised by the features that: (a) that the contents are carried by one or more cartons as defined in the paragraph immediately above, and (b) that the or each such carton is released from the aircraft in flight at air-drop altitudes.

According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a sachet (a) intended for use in an air-drop carton and (b) containing food, medical supplies or other aid-related contents in (for example) granular particularly powdered - form, characterised by a combination of size, shape, contents and filled or part-filled weight which ensures that when the sachet is released from an aircraft in flight it tends to feather-fall rather than free-fall earthwards.

Brief Description of the Drawings Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be more particularly described by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein; figure 1 shows a front view of a sachet, in accordance with the third aspect of the invention; figure 2 shows a side view of the sachet of figure 1; figures 3 shows a front view of another embodiment of a sachet in accordance with the third aspect of the invention; figure 4 shows a side view of the sachet of figure 3; figure 5 shows yet another embodiment of a sachet in accordance with the third aspect of the invention; figure 6 shows a further embodiment of a sachet in accordance with the third aspect of the invention; figure 7 shows yet a further embodiment of a sachet in accordance with the third aspect of the invention; figure 8 shows a front view of an empty sachet in accordance with the third aspect of the invention; and figure 9 shows a side view of the sachet of figure 8.

Description of the Preferred Embodiments Referring initially to figures 1 and 2 of the drawings which depict a sachet for materials to be distributed to areas by being dropped from an aircraft in accordance with the third aspect of the present invention. These sachets are generally referred to by reference numeral 10. The sachet comprises flexible walls 14 which define a sealed compartment 16 which is filled with materials 18 and air 20. The sachet is designed so that it is strong enough to withstand free-fall from any height. Thus the volume of contents to volume of air ratio within the sachet must be sufficient for the resulting product to disperse adequately on impact without bursting the sachet. Furthermore, the sachet walls 14 must be thin enough to enable the recipient to break it open but thick enough to withstand the stresses and the strains of free-fall and impact.

If the thickness and volume are too great then not only would this effect the free-fall characteristics but would, in effect, create little bombs which would be harmful on impact. However, the volume to air ratio plays a further role in that it is critical that the free-fall flutter or feathering be controlled such that the sachet arrives on the ground where it is required and its downward passage is not badly effected by winds. Typically, the contents of the sachet would be greater than 30 g and less than 700 g for successful free-fall performance.

The sachets can be constructed from any convenient material providing it is strong enough to withstand the stresses and strains of storage, free-fall descent, impact on landing and is not effected by moisture or extremes of temperature. Plastics or similar synthetic material are most conveniently used and again it will be appreciated that too thin or too heavy a gauge of plastic would be detrimental. If the walls 14 are too thin, then there will be unnecessary breakage and loss of contents and if they are too thick the contents will be difficult to get at and the resulting sachet will be too heavy.

Typically, a minimum wall thickness of 50 micron and a maximum thickness of 300 micron are employed but these thicknesses will depend upon the exact nature of the material involved.

In this example the sealed compartment 16 of the sachet 12 is defined by one pair of opposing walls 14 of the sachet 12, the walls 14 being welded to one another along weld lines 22 to form the sealed compartment 16. However, there are clearly other forms of construction using folds, fold-overs, onepiece construction that could equally well be applied.

The sachet 12 has an elongate flexible streamer 24 which is disposed at the operative top end of the sachet 12 when the sachet 12 is in free-fall.

Streamer 24 assists in stabilising the sachet when it is in free-fall, in use, and in addition makes the falling sachet more visible as it makes its way to the ground. This streamer is optional but tends to improve the free-fall characteristics of the sachet.

Typically, the sachet 12 has dimensions of 150 mm x 200 mm. It will be appreciated however, that the exact configuration and dimension of the sachet may vary greatly.

The material contents 18 in the compartment 16 of the sachet 12 fills between 15% and 85% of the volume of the compartment 16 and the remainder of the compartment is filled with air or some other gas. It must be appreciated that the materials 18 can take the form of a wide variety of aid materials. These include food, fuel, medical supplies or the like, according to the requirements on the ground.

In use, the configuration of the sachet 12 and the arrangement of the materials 18 and the air 20 in the sealed compartment 16 permit the sachet 12 to feather in free-fall, thereby slowing down the descent of the sachet 12 to the ground and in this way assisting in preventing the sachet from rupturing on impact.

Referring to figures 3 and 4 of the drawings, another embodiment of a sachet according to the present invention is designated generally by the reference numerals 110. Hereinafter, the same and/or similar reference numerals are used to depict the same and/or similar items to those depicted in figures 1 and 2 of the drawings.

We have discovered that it is possible to join together a number of these sachets, ie. to form a multi-compartment sachet, and yet retain the desired feather-fall effect. In fact, these multi-compartment sachets in some cases have improved feather-fall characteristics.

The sachet 110 consists of two sealed compartments 116 which are each filled with a mixture of materials 18 and air 20, each compartment 116 being defined by one pair of opposing walls 114 which are welded to one another along weld lines 22 and 122 to form the sealed compartments 116.

In this example, the operative lower compartment 116 of the sachet 110 when the sachet is in free-fall, in use, contains food granules typically having a mass of 100 g while the operative upper compartment 116 contains material 18 in the form of a nutritional drink having a mass of 75 g. Once again, the sachet 110 has a configuration and is filled with a mixture of materials 18 and air 20 in an arrangement which permits the sachet 110 to feather in free-fall to the ground, in use.

With reference to figure 5 of the drawings, yet another embodiment of a sachet in accordance with the invention is depicted and designated generally by the reference numeral 210. In this example, the operative lower sealed compartment 116, when the sachet 210 is in free-fall in use, has a light-omitting means for example in the form of a strobe of high visibility magnesium chemical tube 25 which is operatively broken prior to insertion into the sachet 212 or broken within the sachet and prior to being dropped from an aircraft. This permits the sachet 210 to be more visible when in flight and on the ground. In use, one or more of such sachets 210 can be dropped together with a number of other sachets in order to make the sachets more visible to persons on the ground. It is envisaged that the sachet 210 will find particular application in the dropping of these aid sachets at night.

A variety of other small devices can also be included in the sachets. For example infralocks night vision devices, cold fluorescents, miniature transmitters or the like can be incorporated into the sachets used in aid drops. By this means the operation can be either covert or overt if carried out during the hours of darkness.

With reference to figure 6 of the drawings, a further embodiment is depicted in the form of a sachet generally designated by the reference numeral 310. The package 310 is similar to those packages depicted in figures 3-5 of the drawings but in this case has a smaller sachet 26 attached thereto, and which defines a sealed compartment 28 which is filled with other materials 18, for example, water purification tablets or medical items, and, optionally, air 20.

With reference to figure 7 of the drawings, yet another further embodiment of air-drop sachet according to this invention is designated generally by the reference numerals 410. The sachet 410 is similar to the sachet 310 as depicted in figure 6 of the drawings, but in this case comprises a unit 412 which defines three sealed compartments 116, 216 and 316, with a smaller compartment 128 being attached thereto. The compartment 128 is filled with materials 18 and air 20. The sealed compartment 116 contains materials 18 typically having a mass of 100 g, sealed compartment 216 contains materials 18 typically having a mass of 75 g, the sealed compartment 316 contains materials 18 typically having a mass of 50 g and the compartment 128 has materials 18 typically having a mass of 25 g contained therein.The configuration of the sachet 412 and the arrangement of materials 18 and air 20 in each of the compartments and the packet permit the package 410 to feather in free-fall in use. The mass of the contents of the various compartments can be adjusted according to their intended use and particular requirements of the intended recipients.

Any of these sachets may have radar scattering means attached thereto for assisting in making the sachets more easily detectable by radar.

Figures 8 and 9 shows one format of an empty sachet according to this invention which is adapted to be filled with the required materials 18 and air 20.

An air-drop carton will now be described in more detail. In previous air-drop methods the object and purpose of the carton, or other packaging in which aid was bulked together, was to preserve the integrity of the aid during handling, flight and on subsequent impact with the ground. Thus typically strong cardboard, plastic or fabric containers were often used and these would inevitably be palletised for ease of movement on the ground and for ease of loading and despatch from a transport air craft such as a HERCULES C130 (TM).

Indeed, the pallet was often an integral part of the packaging, especially when the aid was to be dropped by parachute. In this case, the pallet would, hopefully, hit the ground first and absorb some of the impact thus giving some protection to the aid. If a staple food commodity such as maize, rice, dried milk powder or the like was being dropped by air it was of primary concern that the packaging remain intact or the food would be of little use to the recipients.

Such large packages falling from air drop altitudes present a real threat to those on the ground, even if the descent of the packages is slowed by parachute.

In contrast, the cartons used in the present invention incorporate no pallets and furthermore contain no components which might cause serious injury to those on the ground. The carton (not illustrated) is fabricated from cardboard or any other stiff yet light material as might be selected by someone skilled in the packaging field. Once filled with air-drop sachets, this carton is bound-up to give the necessary integrity and strength. This binding can take a variety of forms such as plastic webbing, wire, tape, string or the like, all of which are knownper se.

In order for the carton to disintegrate on leaving an aircraft, the outer section of the carton is constructed to be sufficiently weak so as to disintegrate once the base is no longer supported and as soon as it comes into contact with the aircraft's slip-stream. However, despite these points or lines of weakness, the carton is so constructed that it may still be handled and transported on the ground and loaded into an aircraft.

This feature of construction can be achieved in a variety of ways which are also known per se. For example, the cardboard (or similar material of construction) carton, can be scored or perforated at strategic places and this can be done before or after loading with air-drop sachets.

It is advantageous to reinforce the top and bottom and on occasions, even the sides, of the carton with additional sheets of cardboard but, unlike a pallet, these present little or no danger to the aid recipient when they fall to the ground.

In operation, as a method of air-dropping food, medical supplies or other aidrelated contents, filled sachets (10,110,210,310 and/or 410) are placed into cartons and the cartons loaded into an aircraft. Once over the drop zone the cartons are simply exited from the aircraft whereupon they rapidly disintegrate and the sachets feather-fall to the ground over the "carpet" drop zone which will be determined by the height and speed of the aircraft and the prevailing wind conditions, together with other factors that are inherent in the sachets themselves.

To give an indication of a HERCULES C130 payload, and the potential of this technique the following example is provided. In what is termed a combipack, as illustrated in figure 3, containing 75 g of an energy-rich powdered drink, to be diluted in cold water, twinned to a compartment containing 100 g of a high protein stew, based on soya, that requires cooking by the recipient, one combi-pack contains the equivalent of three meals and three drinks, thus one pack per person per day. The payload of a HERCULES can be, for example, 22 appropriately-sized cartons, each carton holding say +/- 4,000 an 4,675 combi-packs. The free-fall payload to the intended drop zone could therefore be 88,000 combination sachets that arrive at the ground intact, in an area defined as a carpet of food.

Broadly speaking then, two HERCULES aircraft exiting their maximum payload at heights above hand-held portable surface to air missile threat, could potentially feed a population of 40,000 suffering entrapment, with, in theory, sufficient food for days, based on one combi-pack per person per day.

Provision for packs trapped on say roofs and other inaccessible places would cause a small loss of say 5inc.

Claims (9)

Claims

1. An air-drop carton comprising a plurality of sachets, each individually containing food, medical supplies or other aid-related contents in (for example) granular - particularly powdered - form, and a wrapper which packages the sachets to form and define the so-called carton; characterised by the features: a) that each sachet is so sized, shaped and filled or part-filled that, when released from the confines of the wrapper at air-drop altitudes, it tends to feather-fall rather than free-fall earthwards, and b) that the wrapper is so constituted, and so arranged about its sachets, that whilst it tends to hold the sachets in their cartoned format as they sit in an aircraft immediately prior to being air dropped, it is designed to disintegrate from that format sufficiently to release the sachets for individual flight as or shortly after the carton leaves the aircraft.

2. A method of air-dropping food, medical supplies or other aid-related contents, characterised by the features a) that the contents are carried by one or more cartons as defined in the paragraph immediately above, and b) that the or each such carton is released from the aircraft in flight at air-drop altitudes.

3. A sachet a) intended for use in an air-drop carton and b) containing food, medical supplies or other aid-related contents in (for example) granular - particularly powdered - form, characterised by a combination of size, shape, contents and filled or part-filled weight which ensures that when the sachet is released from an aircraft in flight it tends to feather-fall rather than free-fall earthwards.

4. A sachet as claimed in claim 3 wherein the body of the sachet is divided into two or more separate compartments.

5. A sachet as claimed in claim 3 or claim 4 which incorporates an elongate flexible member as a streamer.

6. A sachet as claimed in claim 3 or claim 4 which incorporates a radar scattering means (eg. a length of lightweight metal foil).

7. A sachet as claimed in any of claims 3 to 6 which incorporates a light emitting means, or miniature transmitting devices.

8. A sachet substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated by any combination of the appropriate drawings.

9. An air-drop carton substantially as herein described.