Title of Invention

"AN AIR DEPLOYABLE DEVICE FOR RESCUE OF SURVIVORS AT SEA"

Abstract

This invention relates to a device for rescue of survivors at sea. The device has a shell assembly with a nose cone provided at one end and a tail body provided at the opposite end with a centre body therebetween. An impact sensor assembly is provided with said nose cone for sensing an impact on striking to a surface of water. A lock release assembly is connected thereto and adapted to receive a signal from said sensor assembly. A dinghy or raft compartment provided within said shell assembly and having releasable doors operated by said lock. A tail compartment is provided at the tail end of said shell assembly.

Full Text

FIELD QF INVENTION This invention relates to a rescue device which is deployed from an aircraft to save life of survivors at sea. PRIOR flRT One of the mode of operation adopted for rescue of servivors at sea is either by sending ships or helicopters to spot of accident. The survivors are picked up by ships or a dinghy is thrown over board helicopter for rescue of them. Another mode of operation adopted for rescue of survivors at sea is that the helicopter locates the survivors and gives information to shore station for taking appropriate action for rescue of survivors at sea. Following the information, life rafts are dropped in the vicinity of the survivors. The above mode of operation has limitations that the time taken by a ship to reach the spot of accident is too long and the survivors; may lose their lives by the time the help reaches them. Further limitation of existing operational modes is that the helicopter with its slow speed can cover a short distance in comparison to a fixed wing aircraft and may not be much useful in emergencies. The further disadvantage of the above modes of operation is that the numbers of dinghies/life rafts which are thrown by hand from helicopter, is small in number and they have a lower capacity and can therefore be able to save only a few survivors at a time. Yet another disadvantage of ship being utilized for rescue operation is that ship can not be taken nearer to the survivors because of fear of their getting dragged in to propeller wake of the ship and getting killed instead of saving their life. OBJECTS QF THE PRESENT INVENTION The primary object of this invention is to propose an air-deployable device for rescue of survivors at sea.. Another object of the present invention is to propose an air-deployable device which can rescue survivors at sea within a relatively shorter time thereby enabling saving of more lives. Still another object of the present invention is to propose an air-deployable device for rescue of survivors at sea which enables rescue of survivors over short range as well as at longer range. Yet another object of present invention is to propose an air deployable rescue device which can drop dinghy/life raft very close to the survivors, such as in the vicinity of 200 meters from them, so that the survivors can reach to the device immediately as soon as it is sighted by them thus increasing their chances of survival. Further object of the present invention is to propose an air--deployable rescue device that can be deployed from a height such as between 300 to 500 meters which is most convenient to the pilot, thereby avoiding the need for the aircraft to foe brought to low altitude which is dangerous especially due to bad visibility at close proximity to sea surface. Yet further object of this invention is to propose an air-deployaxble rescue device that can be deployed even when an aircraft is moving with high speed between 300 to 400 km/h thereby enabling the pilot of the aircraft to release the device without slowing down as soon as marooned sailors are sighted, the device being capable of withstanding shock and vibrations of aircraft at such a speed. Further object of the present invention is to propose an air-deployable device for rescue of survivors at sea which has a fast descent rate due to which the device reaches the sea-surface within a short period. Still further object of the present invention is to propose an air-deplayable device for rescue of survivors at sea which after release from the aircraft, on-impact with sea-surface, ejects out the dinghy out of shell and dinghy out of shell and dinghy or raft gets inflated within a very short time thereby enabling with a short period, the availability of the raft to the survivors who can climb into it and save their lives. Yet further object of this invention is to propose a device which can rescue relatively larger number of survivors in a single instance as the sise of the device is so designed to adopt a dinghy/life raft of larger size which has a large carrying capacity. Still further object of the present invention is to propose a device which is totally safe for deployment from an aircraft as it incorporates a parachute system with cartridge cutters which ensures that device is safely brought to water surface with adequate speed, at the same time avoiding damage to the device. Still further object of this invention is to propose a device in which the dinghy on inflatation does not get dragged rapidly because of shell remaining attached to it which acts as an anchor. Further object of the present invention is to propose a device of such a design that a number of these devices can be deployed from an aircraft in the same sorty, thus saving lives of large number of survivors at a time. DESCRIPTION QE INVENTION According to this invention there is provided a device for rescue of survivors at sea comprising: a) a shell assembly with a nose cone provided at one end and a tail body at the opposite end • and a centre body therebetween; b) an impact sensor assembly provided with said nose cone fro sensing an impact on striking a surface of water; c) a lock release assembly connected to and adapted to receive a signal from said sensor assembly. d) a dinghy or raft compartment within said shell assembly and having releasable doors operated by said lock; e) a tail compartment at the tail end of said shell assembly. The air-deployable device for rescue of survivors at sea proposed under this invention comprises of a shell assembly, impact sensor, lock release mechanism, inflatable dinghy/life raft, parachute and two cartridge operated cutters. The device can be deployed by existing aircraft armament circuit without any modification to it. The device can also be deployed from any aircraft with slight modification to lugs fitted over to the device. On impact with water, after release from aircraft,, it ejects out nylon-fabricated dinghy/life raft from the metallic shell and is inflated through a semi-automatic system consisting of carbondioxide cylinders and special operating head. As many as six devices can be released from the aircraft at a time thereby saving more than 100 lives at a time. The device of the present invention can be deployed from an aircraft moving with a high speed of for example 400 km/h at a convenient height of for example 300 to 500 meters. The dinghy incorporated in the device has a capacity for 17 persons at a time and has a provision of food, drinking water, medicines, signalling device etc. shelter against rains, light at the top for identification by a rescue team during night, and is made of canopy of orange colour which make it distinctly visible against the sea water background. The device takes less than a minute of time to make available the inflatted dinghy/life raft to the survivors at sea. DESCRIPTION QF_ INVENTION WITH JO. REFERENCE IQi ACCOMPANYINS DRAWINGS The above features and the detailed constructional features of the device disclosed in the present invention and method of use there-of will now be more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood that the particular air droppable rescue device embodying the invention is shown by way of illustration and not as a limitation of the invention. The principles and •features of this invention may be employed in various and numerous embodiments without departing from the scope of this invention. Reference is made to accompanying drawings where-in:- FIG 01 - Shows the complete assembly of the device FIG 02 - Shows the Shell Assembly of the device FIG 03 - Shows the Impact Sensor Assembly of the dovicp FIG 04 - Shows the Lock Release mechanism of the device. FIG 05 - Shows the Dinghy/Life Raft of the device FIG 06 (a) - Shows the Parachute of the device FIG 06 (b) - Shows the R4 Cutters of the device FIG 07 - Shows the Schematic Diagram of the device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to Fig 01, the device comprises of five major assemblies namely Shell Assembly (1), Impact Sensor Assembly (2), Lock Release Mechanism (3), Dinghy / Life Raft Referring to Fig 02 the Shell Assembly (1) (Fig 1) is made of Aluminium Sheet designed to house all the major assemblies mentioned above. The Shell Assembly consists of four main parts, Nose Cone (6), Centre Body (7), Tail Body (8) and Rail Assembly (9). Nose Cone (6) houses Impact Sensor Assembly (2) and Lock Release Mechanism (3). The body is divided into two compartments. The front compartment viz Dinghy compartment has openable doors (10) with locking arrangements. A bracket (11) is provided in this compartment to fix C02 cylinder, of Dinghy, firmly. A dinghy (4) is placed in this compartment. A Parachute with Cutters (5) is housed in Tail Compartment. The shell assembly (1) is provided with two Lugs (12) to load the device on the aircraft. Referring to fig. 3, impact sensor assembly (2) is designed to operate lock release mechanism (3) on impact with water. According to preferred embodiment, the assembly has 10mm thick plate (.13) which on impact transfers the impact energy to the main shaft (14). The main shaft is held in position by balls (15) with radial springs (16). As and when impact force is felt on impact plate (13), the main spring (17) compresses there-by releasing balls from the grooves. The main shaft (14) is forced to move rearward. The rearward movement is converted by cam (18) to move bell crank with roller (19) (fig.4) which is a part of lock release mechanism, to activate the lock release mechanism. Referring to fig. 4, lock release mechanism (3) (fig.l), consists of two concentric springs (20) which are held in compressed condition by a plate (21). The plate is held in position by a lever (22) which is connected through ball crank with roller (19). The roller rests on the cam (18) of the impact sensor assembly. As soon as ball cranck moves because of activation of impact sensor assembly (2), the compressed concentric springs (20) get stretched fully and two cables 20a attached to plate get pulled. One cable opens the doors where as other one activates the head (valve) of the C02 Gas cylinder. The gas inflates the dinghy (4) and the increase in volume forces the dinghy out of the shell. The gases further inflates the dinghy to its maximum size. Fig. 5 shows a fully inflatted dinghy with canopy (23), two buoyancy chambers (24), an entry port (25) and an indicting lamp (26). It has rope ladder (27) and lifelines attached all around to enable survivors holding on to the dinghy till they are able to get in. It has also an attachment for fitting anchor. Referring to fig. 6 (a) and 6(b), parachute with cutters (5) is housed in tail compartment of the device. On deployment of the device parachute (28) gets pulled out from a cover (29) in which it is packed and simultaneously safety pins (30) of cartridge (31) also get pulled out. The pyro technique train gets ignited, burns to give a delay of 4 seconds and operates a cartridge to activate the cutter. During the 4 seconds the aircraft moves forward to safe distance, so that the opened parachute does not interact with aircraft. The cutters now cut the cord of parachute pack (32) to deploy the parachute (31). The device descends vertically down with speed of 20m/s. METHOD QE1 USE Referring to fig. 7, the functioning of the complete system is described herein briefly. The aircraft, after location of survivors, positions itself 500 meters from them taking into consideration the direction of wind and tide in that area. Aircraft moves further and releases the device such that it should fall in vicinity of approximately 200 meters from the survivors. On release a lanyard pulls out parachute from the cover and pulls out safety pins of the cutters too. Because of weight of the device, weak link shears off and device gets separated from the aircraft. While descending down, after delay of 4 seconds the cutters operate which cut the cord of pack and parachute gets deployed. The device, with the parachute descends down vertically within 15 to 20 seconds. On impact with water, main shaft 14 of impact sensor assembly 2 moves rearward by which cam 18 transfers the force to lock release mechanism through bell crank, and roller 19. The concentric springs 2*0 for lock release mechanism pull two cables 2(3a which activate CO cylinder and open the doors. The dinghy/life raft starts getting inflated and pushes doors to open. The dinghy is thrown out of shell 1 and gets fully inflated in upright position within 15 to 20 seconds. The shell assembly connected to dinghy (4) acts as an anchor which prevents drifting of dinghy. The survivors can climb into dinghy (4) using rope ladders (27). The survivors can make use of food items, drinking water, medicines, distress signals, torch, paddles and knife etc. till they are picked up by rescue ship. It is to be understood that the device of the invention disclosed herein is susceptible to modifications/adaptations by those skilled in the art. Such modifications/adaptations are intended to be within the scope of the present invention set-forth by the following claims. BE CLAIM: 1. A device for rescue of survivors at sea comprising i a) a shell assembly with a nose cone provided at one end and a tail body at the opposite end and a centre body therebetween; b) an impact sensor assembly provided with said nose cone fro sensing an impact on striking a surface of water; c) a lock release assembly connected to and adapted to receive a signal from said sensor assembly. d) a dinghy or raft compartment within said shell assembly and having releasable doors operated by said lock; e) a tail compartment at the tail end of said shell assembly. 2. An air-deployable device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said shell assembly (1) is preferably made of aluminium. 3. An air—deployable device as claimed in claim 1 comprising a rail assembly in said shell assembly. 4. An air—deployable device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the tail compartment of the shell assembly houses a parachute with cutters. 5. An air-deployable device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the shell assembly is provided with two lugs to load the device on to an aircraft. 6. An air-deployable device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said impact sensor assembly has an impact plate, a main shaft (14) having balls with radial springs (16) far receiving the impact from said plate, a spring and cam obtaining a drive from said shaft. 7. An air-deployable device as claimed in claim .1 wherein the said lock release mechanism comprises a roller, concentric springs (20) disposed is a compressed condition by a plate and lever. 8. An air-deployable device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said dinghy comprises a canopy, two buoyancy chambers provided in said dinghy. 9. A air-deployable device as claimed in claim 1 comprising a parachute (28) housed in a cover and has safety pins. 10. An air-deployable device for rescue of survivors at sea substantially as herein described and i1lustrated.

Documents:

356-del-1998-abstract.pdf

356-del-1998-claims.pdf

356-del-1998-correspondence-others.pdf

356-del-1998-correspondence-po.pdf

356-del-1998-description (complete).pdf

356-del-1998-drawings.pdf

356-del-1998-form-19.pdf

356-del-1998-form-2.pdf

356-del-1998-form-3.pdf

356-del-1998-gpa.pdf

356-del-1998-pa.pdf