GB600401A - Improved apparatus for climbing steep inclines or vertical surfaces - Google Patents

Abstract

600,401. Vehicle wheels. SAULNIER, R. March 21, 1942, No. 3780. Convention date, Jan. 18, 1941. [Class 79 (iii)] [Also in Groups XV and XXXIV] In order to increase ground adhesion and enable a vehicle or a man to travel along slippery surfaces and up inclines and vertical surfaces, the vehicle or man is provided with means such as an airscrew or reaction jets so as to provide a force towards the surface along which the vehicle or man is to move, said means being independent of the means by which the body is propelled. In the arrangement shown in Fig. 4 a motor vehicle 1 is held against a vertical wall by means of an airscrew 2<SP>1</SP>, the axis of which may be perpendicular to the wall as shown, or may be inclined so that the thrust of the screw has an upward component to assist in propulsion as well as an horizontal component. The vehicle is provided with an articulated undercarriage 3 in order to assist in surmounting projections 4 of the wall. The vehicle wheels may be formed with elastic fingers 6 as shown at the left side of Fig. 6, or with metallic gripping members, or they may have arms 7 provided with suckers 8 to increase adhesion. In the arrangement shown in Fig. 7, a vehicle 9 is pressed against a wall or ground surface by an inclined airscrew 10, the traction effort being provided by a man 11. A brake 13 on one of the wheels is controlled by a lever 15. In the arrangement shown in Fig. 8 a man carries a ring 17 having nozzles 18 supplied with compressed air by a pipe 19 and compressor 20. In a modification, the man carries an airscrew driven from a stationary motor vehicle through a long flexible shaft.