US 4,184,802 AGranted

Front loader vehicle for loading aircraft

AssigneeMid-Continent Aircraft Corporation

InventorsRichard J. Cook, Richard Reade

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Abstract

A truck vehicle carried boom and hopper system for lifting, transporting, and depositing a load of particulate material such as powder, granules or seeds into storage bins in material dispensing aicraft, including a hopper boom framework having spaced apart side bars pivotally mounted on the side bars on the front end of the vehicle mounted support structure. An extensible piston-cylinder hydraulic motor system is utilized to obtain various pivotal positions of the hopper boom. A manual hopper control valve is located in the bottom of the hopper, the hopper is pivotally mounted on a horizontal axis on the extended end of the boom and a safety bar is secured to a mid-portion of the boom to enable a safety block when the boom is in the aircraft loading position. Between the boom pivotal mounting on the truck frame and the truck frame is a trussed frame support construction which enables rigid pivotal support of the boom and hopper. An auxiliary hydraulic control cylinder is connected in an extensible brace link to the pivoted hopper to control its tilt position relative to the ground in whichever position the boom is placed.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A front loader vehicle for loading particulate materials into material dispensing aircraft for uses such as seeding, crop dusting, fire fighting, and forest defoliation, including a truck vehicle having integral frame structure with front and rear frame portions;

a boom support structure having front and rear vertical support members rigidly secured, respectively, to said front and rear frame portions;
a boom structure;
means pivotally mounting one end of said boom structure to the front vertical support members of said boom support structure to permit swinging of said boom to positions between a forward projection thence up over the truck to a position extending back over the rear portion of the boom support structure;
power means and controls therefor for pivoting the boom structure to any position between the forward and rearward positions;
a hopper pivotally mounted on a horizontal axis at the other end of said boom structure;
and improved structure comprising:
link means including a self-contained extensible motor unit connected at one end to said hopper and at the other end to said beam;
power means with controls to extend and retract said motor unit to provide level control of the tilt of said hopper;
a bottom discharge port for said hopper, a discharge valve means aligned with said discharge port and controls to move said discharge valve means between open and closed conditions;
abutment means secured on said front vertical support members;
and a safety bar assembly pivotally mounted at one end on said boom structure and having its other end adapted to cooperate with and abut said abutment means on said support frame to block the forward and downward limit position of said boom structure at specific desired limit positions.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.