Airship telescopic boom

#This invention relates to a telescopic boom and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to an airship telescopic boom adapted for mounting on an airship control car or hull of an airship.

#Present airships rely upon mooring lines at the airship bow, stern and midship. The mooring lines are either attached to a vehicle by a ground crew or the ground crew is used to guide the airship to the airships mooring position.

#The mooring system of airships has evolved over the past eight decades from a total ground crew of several hundred people to as few as six people. In the past the mooring systems used a stationary mooring mat, a traveling mooring mast, a weighted cart on railroad tracks for the aft mooring line and moving vehicles for midship mooring lines. However, all the systems as mentioned above relied on ground crew retrieval of the mooring lines and attachments to its connections.

#FIG. 1 is a side view of an airship with an airship control car mooring lines and the telescopic boom mounted thereon.

#FIGS. 2A and 2B show a side and bottom view of the airship telescopic boom.

#FIG. 3A illustrate the extension and retraction drive system for the boom.

#In FIG. 1 an airship is shown and designated by general reference numeral 10. The airship 10 includes an airship control car 12, a forward mooring line 14, midship mooring lines 16 and an aft mooring line 18. Attached to the bottom of the airship control car 12 is the subject telescopic boom designated by general reference numeral 20. The telescopic boom 20 is controlled by a boom operator 21 located in the airship control car 12. The operator 21 is shown in FIG. 4A. The telescopic boom 20 can be extended and retracted along with being raised and lowered in a vertical or pitch motion. Also, the boom 20 may be moved in a lateral or yaw motion.

#In FIG. 2A a side view of the boom 20 is shown having a mounting plate 22 with a gear 24 installed on a pivot shaft 26. A stationary arm pivot bracket 28 is pivotally attached to the shaft 26 and attached to a first end 30 of a stationary arm 32. The stationary arm 32 is tubular with a second end 33 receiving a first end 34 of an extension arm 36 therein. A second end 38 of the extension arm is used for mounting robotic fingers 40 thereon for use in gripping the mooring lines as shown in FIG. 1, a fuel line, or any other related applications. A television camera 42 is also mounted on the second end 38 of the extension arm 36 to permit the operator 21 to view the handling of the mooring lines on a TV monitor 46 shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B.

#In FIG. 2B a bottom view of the telescopic boom 20 can be seen. The extension arm 36 is extended outwardly from the stationary arm 32 using a worm gear 48 driven by a drive motor 50. The worm gear shown in FIG. 3A engages a drive gear 52 mounted on a drive shaft 54 having a first cable drum 56 and a second cable drum 58. A first cable 60 is wound on the first cable drum 56 and around a pulley 62 mounted on the second end 33 of the stationary arm 32 and with the opposite end of the cable 60 attached to the first end 34 of the extension arm 36. A second cable 64 is attached at one end to the first end 34 of the extension arm 36 with the other end attached and wrapped around the second cable drum 58. By rotating the drive gear 52 in one direction the extension arm 36 is allowed to extend outwardly from the stationary arm 32 for telescoping the boom 20 during a mooring application. When the worm gear 48 drives the drive gear 52 in an opposite direction the second drive drum 58 wraps the second cable 64 therearound thereby retracting the extension arm 36 into the stationary arm 32 when the mooring application is completed and the telescopic boom 20 is maintained in its stored position as shown in FIG. 1. The drive motor 50, worm gear 48, and the drive shaft 54 with drums 56 and 58, are stored inside the first end 30 of the stationary arm 32.