CN113942629B

CN113942629B - Aircraft nacelle plate and aircraft provided with such a nacelle plate

Info

Publication number: CN113942629B
Application number: CN202111441964.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 丁兰; 何永军; 毛文懿; 严丹丹; 刘文成
Original assignee: Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd
Current assignee: Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd
Priority date: 2021-11-30
Filing date: 2021-11-30
Publication date: 2024-06-04
Anticipated expiration: 2041-11-30
Also published as: CN113942629A

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to an aircraft bulkhead, characterized in that the bulkhead spans the entire aircraft cross section and comprises a sliding door in the middle of the bulkhead, which sliding door, when closed, forms a cabin space within the aircraft independent of each other, and which sliding door, when open, forms an emergency evacuation channel of the aircraft, wherein the sliding door is further equipped with a switch for transmitting the state of the sliding door to a crew member.

Description

Aircraft nacelle plate and aircraft provided with such a nacelle plate

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to aircraft panels, and in particular to aircraft panels with sliding doors.

Background

In general, depending on the emergency aisle requirements of aircraft (in particular civil aircraft) designs, no obstacle has to be present in the passage of any seat in the passenger cabin to the emergency exit of the aircraft. At present, the cabin dividing facilities of the aircraft are distributed on two sides of a main channel, gaps which are not smaller than the width of the channel are reserved in the middle of the main channel, the main channel is shielded by a door curtain, and the channel is kept unblocked by opening the door curtain, as shown in fig. 1to 3.

For example, schematic diagrams of example aircraft shelter installations of the prior art are shown in fig. 1-3. It can be seen that prior art shelter installations generally comprise a shelter plate and a curtain, and that the curtain is used as a compartment space partition. Although these traditional aircraft cabinetry facilities can meet the requirement of retaining the emergency passage of the aircraft, the effects of partition and zoning are poor, the decorative effect is poor, and the requirements of more and more business customers pursuing comfort and privacy cannot be met.

In addition, the traditional aircraft cabin division facilities realize the opening of an emergency channel through the opening and closing of the door curtain, but a crew in the cockpit cannot directly monitor whether the door curtain is opened and bound in the stages of taxiing, take-off and landing (TTOL).

Moreover, the traditional aircraft cabin division facilities have only simple and easy partition functions and almost no storage and other functions.

The present disclosure is improved upon with respect to, but is not limited to, the factors described above.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT DISCLOSURE

To this end, the present disclosure provides an aircraft bulkhead with a sliding door for effectively separating cabin space and enabling the open and closed state of the sliding door to be provided to a crew member to ensure the unblocking of an aircraft emergency passageway.

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, an aircraft nacelle panel is provided, wherein the nacelle panel spans the entire aircraft cross section and comprises a sliding door in the middle of the nacelle panel, which sliding door when closed forms a cabin space within the aircraft independent of each other and which sliding door when opened forms an emergency evacuation channel of the aircraft, wherein the sliding door is further provided with a switch for communicating the status of the sliding door to a crew member.

According to an embodiment, the aircraft cabin panel is a civil aircraft cabin panel.

According to another embodiment, the deck comprises an interlayer on one side of the deck for accommodating the sliding door, wherein the sliding door is accommodated in the interlayer when opened, without occupying cabin space.

According to a further embodiment, the deck boards are integrated with a plurality of functions including emergency exit indicator lights, storage, entertainment viewing, air conditioning control.

According to a further embodiment, the storage function is provided on the side of the nacelle plate without the interlayer.

According to a further embodiment, the sliding door is further provided with a double latch comprising a primary lock for locking the sliding door in a fully closed position and enabling opening, closing and moving the sliding door when the primary lock is unlocked, and a secondary lock for locking the sliding door in a fully open position for keeping the aircraft emergency aisle clear.

According to yet another embodiment, the secondary lock is capable of locking the sliding door in a fully open position by pulling its latch out to bring the latch beyond the sliding door and rotating the latch 90 degrees clockwise to hook the sliding door.

According to a further embodiment, the switch is arranged on the secondary lock and the switch is opened only if the sliding door is fully opened and locked.

According to a further embodiment, each of the aircraft taxi, take-off and/or landing phases has a respective TTOL switch closed under its respective phase, the TTOL switches being electrically connected in parallel with each other and the switches being electrically connected in series with each of the TTOL switches.

According to a further embodiment, the switch is further electrically connected in series with a solenoid in a relay, and the relay is further connected to an alarm device, such that with any of the TTOL switches closed and the switch closed, the solenoid of the relay is energized such that the armature switch of the relay is turned on and thereby activates the alarm device.

According to yet another embodiment, the door panel design of the sliding door has frangible features so that it can be bumped open in an emergency.

According to a further embodiment, the sliding door comprises a ball limiter and upon striking the side of the door panel of the sliding door close to the ball limiter, the limiting ball of the ball limiter disengages the limiter such that the sliding door is opened.

According to a further embodiment, the nacelle plate further has a damper for the sliding door, which is capable of reducing noise when the sliding door is opened or closed, and of returning the sliding door to a fully closed position in case the sliding door is not locked in the fully opened position by the secondary lock.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an aircraft comprising a nacelle plate as according to the first aspect of the present disclosure.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method for notifying a TTOL stage down-shift door state, the shift door being a shift door included in a bulkhead according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the method comprising: determining that the aircraft is currently in a TTOL stage; determining whether the sliding door is fully opened and locked; and upon determining that the sliding door is not fully opened and locked, issuing a visual or audible alert to the crew member.

Aspects generally include a method, apparatus, system, computer program product, and processing system substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.

The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of examples in accordance with the present disclosure in order that the detailed description that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages will be described hereinafter. The disclosed concepts and specific examples may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present disclosure. Such equivalent constructions do not depart from the scope of the appended claims. The features of the concepts disclosed herein, both as to their organization and method of operation, together with associated advantages, will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings. Each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description and is not intended to limit the claims.

Drawings

So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present disclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to aspects, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only certain typical aspects of this disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the description may admit to other equally effective aspects. The same reference numbers in different drawings may identify the same or similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary aircraft shelter of the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of another example aircraft shelter of the prior art;

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of yet another example aircraft shelter of the prior art;

Fig. 4 and 5 are front and rear views, respectively, of an example aircraft bulkhead according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a secondary lock included with an example aircraft bulkhead according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is an exemplary circuit diagram of a sliding door status notification function according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of an exemplary frangible feature included with a sliding door according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

Fig. 9 is a flowchart of an exemplary method for notifying TTOL stage downshifting in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

Detailed Description

The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of various configurations and is not intended to represent the only configurations in which the concepts described herein may be practiced. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understanding of the various concepts. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details.

As shown in fig. 4 and 5, front and back views, respectively, of an example aircraft bulkhead 100 according to an embodiment of the disclosure are shown. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the "front" and "back" are relative terms herein and are not intended to be limiting to a particular side of the nacelle plate as a front. For example, if the side of the nacelle plate facing the economy class is referred to as the "front side", the side thereof facing the business class is referred to as the "back side", and vice versa.

In one embodiment, the perimeter of the nacelle plate 100 can be connected to the aircraft so as to span the entire aircraft cross-section such that separate cabin spaces are formed within the aircraft. This compartmentalization function will be apparent to those skilled in the art and will not be described in detail herein.

As shown, the deck 100 is also provided with a sliding door 110. In general, the sliding door 110 is located in the middle of the bulkhead 100 and, when closed, forms a cabin space within the aircraft independent of each other, and, when open, forms an emergency evacuation channel for the aircraft.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the deck 100 further comprises an interlayer (not shown in the drawings) on one side of the deck for receiving the sliding door 110. In this embodiment, when the sliding door 110 is opened, the sliding door is received in (e.g., slid into) the interlayer without taking up cabin space.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the deck 100 may also integrate a number of functions including emergency exit lights, storage, entertainment viewing, air conditioning control, etc., as shown by exit lights 120, lockers 130, storage drawers 140, viewing screens 150, control panels 160 (which may provide air conditioning control functions), etc. in fig. 4 and 5. In this embodiment, lockers 130, storage drawers 140, etc. may be provided on the non-sandwiched side of the deck 100 to increase space utilization.

In yet another embodiment of the present disclosure, the sliding door 110 is also equipped with a double locking mechanism (i.e., double latch) that includes a primary lock 170 and a secondary lock (not shown in fig. 4, see fig. 5 and 6). In one embodiment, both primary lock 170 and secondary lock 180 of sliding door 110 may be located on the door frame of deck 100. In yet another embodiment, the master lock 170 may be located on a sliding door.

As shown in fig. 4 and 5, the main lock 170 is used to lock the sliding door 110 in a fully closed position, and the sliding door 110 can be opened, closed, and moved when the main lock 170 is unlocked. In a further embodiment, the primary lock 170 may be opened from both the front and back sides of the deck 100. In yet another embodiment, the primary lock 170 can only be opened from the business class side so that the sliding door can be opened.

In one embodiment, secondary lock 180 is used to lock sliding door 110 in a fully open position to enable maintenance of the clearance of the aircraft emergency path (particularly during the aircraft taxiing, takeoff and/or landing (TTOL) phases), thereby ensuring the emergency path requirements.

Fig. 6 illustrates a schematic view of a secondary lock 180 included with an example aircraft bulkhead according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

For example, as shown in phantom in fig. 6 (which shows the trajectory of secondary lock 180 when locking sliding door 110 in the open position), secondary lock 180 can lock sliding door 110 in the fully open position by pulling its latch (shown to the left in fig. 6) out of sliding door 110 and then rotating the latch 90 degrees clockwise to hook sliding door 110.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that this is but one example of a mechanism that can lock the sliding door in the fully open position, as well as various other locking mechanisms that can lock the sliding door in the fully open position.

In another embodiment, the secondary lock latch does not extend when the sliding door 110 is in the closed state, so that the sliding door 110 can be fully closed, for example, as shown in fig. 6.

In order to be able to communicate the open and closed state of the sliding door (i.e. whether the emergency path is clear) to the crew member, according to a further embodiment of the present disclosure, the sliding door 110 may also be provided with a switch for communicating the state of the sliding door to the crew member. In this embodiment, the switch may be closed and opened depending on whether the sliding door is fully opened and locked. For example, the switch may be open only if the sliding door is fully open and locked, and closed in any other case of the sliding door; or vice versa.

The inventors have realized that the state of the sliding door only has to be transferred to the crew when the aircraft is in the TTOL phase, whereas it is not only unnecessary, but may even interfere with the crew, to transfer the state of the sliding door to the crew when the aircraft is in the non-TTOL phase. Thus, in one embodiment of the present disclosure, the status signal of the sliding door may be combined with the TTOL signal to both notify the crew when needed (i.e., TTOL phase) and not interfere with the crew at other phases.

The following equation shows an exemplary logical relationship of these signal combinations:

O＝X AND(Y1 OR Y2 OR……OR Yn)

Wherein O represents an indication of an alarm signal, O is equal to 1 indicating that an alarm signal is to be initiated, and O is equal to 0 indicating that an alarm signal is not to be initiated, so as not to interfere with the crew;

x represents a sliding door state, X equals 1 represents that the sliding door is not fully opened/unlocked, X equals 0 represents that the sliding door is fully opened and locked;

y1, Y2 … … Yn represent each TTOL stage (n is the number of TTOL stages), with Y1 being equal to 1 and Y2 … … Yn being equal to 0 when the aircraft is in the first of the TTOL stages; and so on.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that although a single variable X is used herein to represent the state of the sliding door, two variables may be used, where the first variable represents the opening and closing of the sliding door and the second variable represents whether the sliding door is locked or not. In the latter case, the sliding door may be equipped with two switches, each corresponding to a variable.

Referring now to fig. 7, a schematic diagram of one exemplary circuitry of the above-described sliding door status notification function is shown. It will be appreciated that FIG. 7 is merely one exemplary implementation of the above-described logical relationships, and that various other suitable ways of implementing the logic shown in the above-described formulas may exist, such as employing ASICs, FPGAs, and the like.

Referring to fig. 7, the exemplary circuitry includes a gate switch 710, TTOL switches 720, 730, a relay 740, and an alarm device 750. Of course, the exemplary circuitry also includes any suitable power and ground and other additional circuit components, which are not described in detail herein.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, switch 710 may be provided on a secondary lock, such as secondary lock 180, for communicating to a crew member, such as on an indicator light, display screen, etc., that the aircraft taxiing, takeoff and/or landing (TTOL) phase shift door 110 is not fully open and locked. Or in this case an audible alarm may be issued to inform the crew member, for example a beep or a voice (such as a voice of "the cabin floor door is not open, the door is not locked"). In the embodiment shown in fig. 7, switch 710 is opened only if the sliding door (i.e., the cabin door) is fully opened and locked.

As shown in fig. 7, TTOL switches 720, 730 may correspond to any of the aircraft taxi, take-off and/or landing (TTOL) phases and close under their respective phases. In this embodiment, the TTOL switches are electrically connected in parallel with each other so that the circuit shown in fig. 7 can be grounded at any TTOL stage.

Further, as can be seen from fig. 7, switch 710 is electrically connected in series with each of the TTOL switches, enabling the completion of the circuit when the sliding door is not fully open and/or unlocked during the TTOL phase.

According to the implementation shown in fig. 7, each of the switches 710, TTOL switches (720, 730), and solenoids in the relay 740 may be electrically connected together in series, and the relay 740 is also connected to the alarm device 750. Thus, with either of the TTOL switches closed and switch 710 closed, the solenoid of relay 740 is energized to turn on the armature switch of relay 740, thereby activating alarm 750.

Specifically, referring to fig. 7, if the sliding door is not fully open and/or unlocked, switch 710 is closed and the signal is on so that an alarm can be raised during the TTOL phase.

With continued reference to fig. 7, if the landing gear is down and locked (belonging to the TTOL phase, such as take-off, landing, etc.), switch 720 is closed. Thus, closure of the switches 710, 720 causes the solenoid to turn on and create a magnetic force, causing the relay 740 in fig. 7 to turn on the switch of the alarm device, thereby activating the alarm device (e.g., illuminating an indicator light, which is one example of a visual alarm);

If the glide-down light is on (belonging to the glide phase of the TTOL phase), switch 730 is closed. Thus, the closing of the switches 710, 730 causes the solenoid to turn on and create a magnetic force, causing the relay 740 in fig. 7 to turn on the switch of the alarm device 750, thereby activating the alarm device (such as illuminating an indicator light) through the power supply 760 of the alarm device 750.

When the aircraft is not in the TTOL phase, the TTOL switches are open such that the solenoid of relay 740 is not turned on and warning device 750 is not turned on regardless of whether switch 710 is open or closed. Thus, the open and closed states of the sliding door do not interfere with the crew.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that although fig. 7 shows two situations for the TTOL phase, there are various other situations to determine that the current aircraft is in the TTOL phase and thereby close the corresponding TTOL switch so that the solenoid is turned on and thereby the indicator light is illuminated, which will not be described in detail herein.

In yet another embodiment of the present disclosure, to prevent failure of the door lock in an emergency situation where the door is closed but not opened during the TTOL phase, the door panel design of the sliding door has frangible features so that it can be bumped open in an emergency situation. For example, fig. 8 illustrates one example of such a frangible feature. Referring to fig. 8, as shown in the enlarged view of the upper left corner, the sliding door includes a ball nose stop 810 (i.e., a frangible feature). Upon striking the side of the door panel of the sliding door that is proximate to the ball nose limiter 810 (as shown in the shaded area in fig. 8), the limit ball of the ball nose limiter 810 disengages the limiter so that the sliding door is opened.

In yet another embodiment of the present disclosure, the deck 100 may also have a damper (not shown in the drawings) for the sliding door 110, which can reduce noise when the sliding door is opened and/or closed. In a further embodiment, the damper may be a self-return damper, such that the sliding door may be returned to a fully closed position without being locked in the fully open position by the secondary lock.

In yet another embodiment of the present disclosure, the bulkhead 100 is a residential aircraft bulkhead.

Fig. 9 is a flowchart of an exemplary method 900 for notifying TTOL stage downshifting in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

At block 910, method 900 may include determining that the aircraft is currently in a TTOL stage. In connection with fig. 7, this determination may be accomplished by monitoring the status of each TTOL switch, such as the status of TTOL switches 720, 730, etc. In the embodiment shown in fig. 7, closure of any of the TTOL switches may indicate that the aircraft is currently in TTOL phase. Of course, there are various other suitable ways to make the determination, such as by the status of landing gear, the status of a skid landing light, etc., which are not described in detail herein.

At block 920, the method 900 may include determining whether the sliding door is fully open and locked. In connection with fig. 7, this determination may also be accomplished by monitoring the state of a switch associated with the sliding door, such as switch 710. In the embodiment shown in fig. 7, the opening of switch 710 may indicate that the sliding door is fully open and locked.

When it is determined that the sliding door is not fully opened and locked, method 900 may include, at block 930, issuing a visual or audible alert to a crew member (e.g., pilot, jersey, etc.). For example, method 900 may display an alert to the pilot on a display of the aircraft cockpit informing the pilot that the sliding door is not fully opened and locked. Otherwise, the method 900 returns to block 910.

Of course, the present disclosure also relates to an aircraft, in particular a civil aircraft, comprising the aforementioned nacelle plate.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that although "switches" are used in this disclosure to represent the state of a sliding gate, and examples of electrical switches (e.g., switch 710, ttol switches 720, 730) are given, these switches may be in any other suitable form capable of representing a binary state, such as diodes, field effect transistors, various mechanical switches, and so forth.

The above detailed description includes references to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of the detailed description. The drawings illustrate specific embodiments that can be practiced by way of illustration. These embodiments are also referred to herein as "examples". Such examples may include elements other than those shown or described. However, examples including the elements shown or described are also contemplated. Moreover, it is also contemplated that examples using any combination or permutation of those elements shown or described, or with reference to specific examples (or one or more aspects thereof) shown or described herein, or with reference to other examples (or one or more aspects thereof) shown or described herein.

In the appended claims, the terms "including" and "comprising" are open-ended, i.e., a system, apparatus, article, or process of claim that is defined to be within the scope of the claim, except for those elements recited after such term. Furthermore, in the appended claims, the terms "first," "second," and "third," etc. are used merely as labels, and are not intended to indicate the numerical order of their objects.

In addition, the order of the operations illustrated in the present specification is exemplary. In alternative embodiments, the operations may be performed in a different order than shown in the figures, and the operations may be combined into a single operation or split into more operations.

The above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. For example, the examples described above (or one or more aspects thereof) may be used in connection with other embodiments. Other embodiments may be used, such as by one of ordinary skill in the art after reviewing the above description. The abstract allows the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. This Abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Furthermore, in the above detailed description, various features may be grouped together to streamline the disclosure. However, the claims may not state every feature disclosed herein, as embodiments may characterize a subset of the features. Further, embodiments may include fewer features than are disclosed in the specific examples. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description, with one claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment. The scope of the embodiments disclosed herein should be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

Claims

1. An aircraft bulkhead, characterized in that it spans the entire aircraft cross section and comprises a sliding door in the middle of the bulkhead, which sliding door, when closed, forms a cabin space within the aircraft independent of each other, and which sliding door, when open, forms an emergency evacuation channel for the aircraft,

Wherein the sliding door is further provided with a switch for communicating the status of the sliding door to the crew,

Wherein each of the aircraft taxiing, takeoff and/or landing phases each have a TTOL switch closed in its respective phase, the TTOL switches being electrically connected in parallel with each other and the switches being electrically connected in series with each of the TTOL switches.

2. The deck panel of claim 1, wherein the sliding door is further equipped with a double latch comprising a primary lock for locking the sliding door in a fully closed position and enabling opening, closing and moving the sliding door when the primary lock is unlocked, and a secondary lock for locking the sliding door in a fully open position to leave the aircraft emergency aisle clear.

3. The deck panel of claim 2, wherein said secondary lock is capable of locking said sliding door in a fully open position by pulling its latch out to extend the latch beyond said sliding door and rotating the latch 90 degrees clockwise to hook said sliding door.

4. A nacelle plate according to claim 3, wherein the switch is arranged on the secondary lock and the switch is opened only if the sliding door is fully opened and locked.

5. The nacelle plate of claim 1, wherein the switch is further electrically connected in series with a solenoid in a relay, and the relay is further connected to an alarm device such that with any of the TTOL switches closed and the switch closed, the solenoid of the relay is energized such that an armature switch of the relay is turned on and thereby activates the alarm device.

6. The deck panel of claim 1, wherein the door panel design of the sliding door has frangible features to allow for being bumped open in an emergency.

7. The deck panel of claim 6, wherein the sliding door includes a ball limiter, and upon striking the side of the door panel of the sliding door proximate the ball limiter, the limit ball of the ball limiter disengages the limiter such that the sliding door is opened.

8. An aircraft comprising a nacelle panel according to any one of claims 1-7.

9. A method for informing TTOL stage down-door status, the door being as comprised by a deck as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, the method comprising:

Determining that the aircraft is currently in a TTOL stage;

Determining whether the sliding door is fully opened and locked; and

When it is determined that the sliding door is not fully opened and locked, a visual or audible alert is issued to the crew.