The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 26, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 02, 2000
Terence Lee Koethe, Keller, TX (US);
Fuel Dynamics, Arlington, TX (US);
Abstract
Inert loading jet fuel ( ) is a provided by directly injecting an inerting agent ( ) directly into jet fuel ( ) while it is being loaded onboard an aircraft ( ) to ultimately make aircraft fuel tanks ( ) safe from ignition and explosions. The inerting agent ( ) is preferably gaseous nitrogen (N ) which is directly injected into the fuel flow ( ) during refueling of the aircraft ( ), and travels to the fuel tanks ( ) and then separates from the fuel ( ) within the fuel tank ( ) to substantially fill the ullage of the fuel tank ( ) with a non-explosive atmosphere. The inerting agent ( ) may also be injected in to aircraft fuels ( ) which are cooled to reduced temperatures such that the volume of the fuel ( ) is reduced, thereby allowing more fuel ( ) to be held in the storage ( ). The inerting agent may further be injected into aircraft fuels which are heated and then stored in fuel storage ( ) of the aircraft ( ) to de-ice the wings ( ) of the aircraft ( ). Such fuels are heated externally of the aircraft ( ) to elevated temperatures which are sufficiently high enough to transfer heat from the fuel, through a fuel tank ( ) extending within the wings ( ), and to the exterior of the wings ( ) to de-ice the aircraft ( ).