Space shuttle orbiter barricade
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
InventorPerry R. DiGiovanniantonio
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A barricade installation for arresting the motion of a winged space vehicle omprising four rectangular loops of heavy duty nylon rope commonly attached at each corner to a pair of stanchions by tensioning pendants, and at opposite vertical sides to a pair of arresting engines. A plurality of vertical, nylon engaging straps are positioned between top and bottom horizontal ropes at finite intervals along the length thereof in step-wise fashion. Upon engagement of the vertical straps by the vehicle, the rectangular loops break away from the stanchions and move in the direction of forward motion of the vehicle, and loading on the vehicle frame and wing assemblies is equalized during arrestment as the vertical straps are free to move relative to the horizontal ropes.
Claims2
An arresting barrier for arresting aircraft having a fuselage and wings of predetermined size, comprising:
- a plurality of barrier elements;
- each of said barrier elements including vertically spaced horizontally disposed upper and lower rope members and horizontally spaced vertically disposed left and right rope members, wherein each end of each rope member terminates in an integral loop and the loops of said upper and lower rope members are interlinked with corresponding loops of said left and right rope members;
- each of said barrier elements further including a plurality of horizontally spaced vertically disposed engaging straps each strap having two end portions respectively encircling said upper and lower vertically spaced horizontally disposed rope members to thereby slidably attach said strap to said upper and lower rope members;
- each of said engaging straps having an edge protector attached to and covering each edge thereof, said edge protector having a U-shaped transverse cross section;
- said barrier elements juxtaposed in substantially parallel planes, corresponding straps of adjacent barrier elements juxtaposed with respect to each other, the adjacent straps of each barrier element being horizontally offset relative to each other to thereby define a plurality of openings, each opening having a horizontal dimension sufficient to permit passage of a portion of the fuselage of an aircraft to be arrested while preventing passage of the wings of said aircraft;
- means slidably attached to corresponding vertically disposed rope members of each said barrier element for connecting each said vertically disposed rope member to a corresponding energy absorber wherein said rope members each comprise a polyurethane coated nylon rope having a predetermined diameter and said vertically disposed engaging straps each comprise multi-ply nylon webbing and each said edge protector comprises nylon webbing having a polyurethane coating thereon;
- and
- means attached to the vertically disposed rope members of each barrier element for connecting each said vertically disposed rope member to a corresponding stanchion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.