US 6,993,791 B2Granted

Altitude protection device

AssigneeLSS Life Support Systems AG

InventorsAndreas Reinhard, Wendelin Egli

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Abstract

An altitude protection device for an acceleration protection suit having a plurality of liquid-filled veins is comprised of a bladder inserted in a pocket. A spacer fabric that is non-compressible under the loads to be provided is enclosed in the pocket and defines a minimum volume inside the bladder. The bladder is closed off or opened relative to surrounding air in the aircraft cabin via a valve that is opened if a rate of pressure change in the cabin is less than or equal to a presettable maximum value, and closed if the rate of pressure change is greater than the value. If the valve closes and the pressure falls further, air located in the bladder inflates the bladder and pocket, increasing tensile stress in the fabric, and thereby raising the internal pressure of the veins resulting in increased internal pressure in the entire acceleration protection suit.

Claims10

Dependent claims

An altitude protection device for crew members of high-performance aircraft, as an addition to an acceleration protection suit according to the hydrostatic principle which is manufactured from a high-strength and low-stretch textile fabric, with four liquid-filled veins which extend essentially over the entire length of the acceleration protection suit, characterized in that the altitude protection device comprises:

at least one pocket consisting of a textile fabric having comparable properties to that of the acceleration protection suit, which is stitched to the latter;
for each pocket, at least one bladder comprised of an elastic plastic;
for each of the at least one bladder, a valve which can connect the interior of the bladder to the surrounding air and can close it off from the latter;
and
the valve remaining open in so far as
ⅆ
p
ⅆ
t
≤
ⅆ
p
ⅆ
t

max
the valve closing in so far as
ⅆ
p
ⅆ
t
≻
ⅆ
p
ⅆ
t

max
where
ⅆ
p
ⅆ
t
represents the rate of pressure change of the surrounding air and
[
ⅆ
p
ⅆ
t
]
=
N
m
2
/
sec
.
and
ⅆ
p
ⅆ
t
⁢
❘
max
represents a presettable limit value of this rate of pressure change.

53 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.