US 6,283,696 B1Granted

Aircraft towing vehicle

AssigneeFMC International AG

InventorsGregor Trummer, Hartmut Mann, Thomas Fuchs

Life of this patent

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Abstract

An aircraft towing vehicle includes a lifting and locking device for the nose landing gear of the aircraft being towed. The device has two support elements which reach behind the nose wheels and can be displaced along straight-line guiding rails by a linear drive so as to pull the nose wheels of the aircraft onto a lifting platform and to lock it into place thereon. At the end of each guiding rail a guiding pin is provided which, in cooperation with a guiding track embodied in the support element, controls the rotation of the support element into a release position in which the nose landing gear is able to pass through. By a reverse movement, the rotation of the support elements are put into the operation position in which the support elements reach behind the nose landing gear.

Claims17

Dependent claims

An aircraft towing vehicle comprising:

a chassis having a U-shaped section open to the rear;
and
a lifting and locking device carried in the U-shaped section of said chassis for engaging with nose wheels of an aircraft, said lifting and locking device comprising
a lifting and lowering platform for support of the nose wheels,
two guiding rails carried by the lifting and lowering platform and extending in a longitudinal direction of said chassis, each guiding rail extending along a substantially straight line without slanting,
a support element being movable along each guiding rail for reaching behind and locking the nose wheels, each support element including portions defining a guide track,
a linear drive for moving each support element along a respective guiding rail, and
a guiding pin located adjacent the rear of each guiding rail and cooperating with a respective guide track for causing rotation of each support element adjacent a rear of a respective guiding rail around an essentially vertical axis from an operational position, extending transverse to the longitudinal direction of the chassis, to a release position, approximately parallel to the longitudinal direction of said chasis, to permit entry of the nose wheels into the U-shaped section of said chasis,
whereby as each support element approaches the rear end of a respective guiding rail, the respective guiding pin is engaged in the respective guiding track to control rotational movement of the support element.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.