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Industrial and urban airport complex with special cargo-handling facilities

  • US 4,218,034 A
  • Filed: 02/02/1978
  • Issued: 08/19/1980
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/02/1978
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. An industrial and urban airport complex embodying a substantially large tract of land and including a system of aircraft landing and take-off runways surrounding and defining an aircraft loading and unloading apron, a multi-level passenger terminal located on said apron and including a ground floor level, a below grade level, and an upper floor level, means defining a series of passenger and cargo gates arranged peripherally around said terminal substantially at the level of said apron, a first cargo down-elevator for each gate and effective to transfer enplaning cargo items from said upper floor level to substantially the level of the apron, a second cargo down-elevator for each gate and effective to transfer deplaning cargo items for substantially the level of the apron to said below grade level, a cargo building disposed in the immediate vicinity of the apron and within the surrounding confines of said runways, a first in-floor towline for transporting enplaning cargo items from the cargo building to and along said upper floor level of the passenger terminal, a second in-floor towline for transporting deplaning cargo items from said below grade level of the passenger terminal to the cargo building, said first and second in-floor towlines having associated therewith wheeled carts for carrying the cargo items, said first in-floor towline having a section extending along said upper floor level in spaced relation with the gates, plural means on said upper floor level for selectively transporting enplaning cargo items from the first in-floor towline section to each of the first cargo down-elevators, each of said plural means comprising a horizontal power conveyor extending between one side of the first in-floor towline section and the associated first cargo down-elevator and a transfer device on the other side of said first in-floor towline section for forcibly sliding cargo items on one of said cargo carts of said first in-floor towline section and in alignment with said conveyor onto the conveyor for delivery by the latter to said associated first cargo down-elevator, means on said below grade level for transporting deplaning cargo items from each of said second cargo down-elevators to the carts of the second in-floor towline, and reversible conveyor means movably disposed on said apron for selectively conducting enplaning cargo items to an aircraft on said apron and adjacent to one of the gates from the first cargo down-elevator of the one gate and for conducting deplaning cargo items to the second down-elevator of said one gate from the aircraft, said first and second cargo elevators being laterally shiftable within the confines of their respective gates, and the power conveyors and their respective transfer devices on said upper level being laterally shiftable into register with their respective first cargo elevators.

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