GB545637A - Improvements in or relating to ice elimination on wings and other surfaces of aircraft - Google Patents

Abstract

545,637. Valves. GOODRICH CO., B. F. Jan. 17, 1941, No. 692. Convention date, Jan. 19, 1940. [Class 135] [Also in Group XXXIII] For splitting off ice from the leading edges of aircraft wings and tail planes, a series of inflatable elements is arranged on the two sides of the machine, the separate elements on each side being inflated in alternation one with the other and in unison with the corresponding element on the opposite side. Fig. 2 shows an aeroplane having separate inflatable elements 26, 27, 28 at the leading edge of each wing and similar elements 29, 30 on the leading edges of the tail planes. Each element comprises a rubber sheath enclosing one or more inflatable tubes, the elements 27, 28 having each three tubes, and the element 26 having three tubes extending part of the way and a single tube with a sinuous partition forming an extension of the central tube towards the wing tip. The two outer tubes of the three are inflated together in alternation with the central tube. The wing tip extension may be separately inflated or it may be inflated at the same time as the central tube of the element 26. The elements 29, 30 are inflated and deflated simultaneously. In use the elements are inflated, exhausted and subjected to suction cyclically by a rotary distribution valve shown in Figs. 10 and 13. Compressed air from a pump and reservoir enters a valve casing at P3 and thence a central bore 51 in a rotary valve 50. Pipe lines D1 . . . D5 from the elements lead to ports equally spaced around the valve casing which are successively connected to the source of pressure through a radial passage 53 in the valve. At the next tenth of a turn the same port is connected through a passage 54 with an annular space 55 and so. to exhaust through a pipe E simultaneously the compressed air reservoir is replenished through a radial passage 56 as the latter registers with ports leading to an annular passage 57 connected to a pipe A. At any moment four of the five pipes D1 - D5 are connected through an annular space 52 cut in the valve to the end of the valve chamber which is connected to the suction side of the pump through a pipe S. The valve 50 is rotated in steps by a Geneva stop motion 60, 61 driven through the worm gearing shown from a motor shaft 67. U.S.A. Specification 1,998,809 is referred to.