The Boeing Company

Timothy M Holey

Donald Keith Jones

Albert B Ackermann

A deployment apparatus for use with an escape slide stowed in a pack within an aircraft and adjacent the sill region of an aircraft door opening is operable to deploy the stowage pack from its position within the aircraft fuselage to a position exterior to the aircraft fuselage upon opening of a door mounted in the door opening. The deployment apparatus includes a deployment arm that is hingedly affixed at a first end thereof to the escape slide stowage pack. A second end of the deployment arm is adjacent the interior surface of the aircraft door when the door is in its closed position. An arming device is pivotally mounted on the interior of the aircraft door and is movable between an armed and an unarmed position. In the unarmed position, the arming device is spaced from the second end of the deployment arm and in the armed position the arming device engages the second end of the deployment arm. A track is affixed to the interior surface of the door and with the arming device in its armed position the arming device cooperates with the track to guide the second end of the deployment arm into the track as the door is moved from the closed toward the open position. The track is configured to hold the second end of the deployment arm captive during a predetermined degree of movement of the aircraft door so as to pull the stowage pack through the door opening as the door is opened. When the door has exceeded the predetermined degree of movement, the second end of the deployment arm is released from the track so that the stowage pack can fall under the force of gravity through the door opening of the aircraft. The deployment arm and track are configured so that upon release of the deployment arm by the track, the center of gravity of the stowage pack and escape slide is exterior to the aircraft fuselage. Preferably, the arming device is connected by a linkage to a handle mounted interior to the aircraft and operable by a crewmember to arm and disarm the deployment apparatus.

Growing community of inventors

Marysville, WA, United States of America

Timothy M Holey