Airborne liquid-spreading system
First Claim
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1. A system for spreading a liquid or other flowable material on the ground from an aircraft at a specified coverage level, said system comprising:
- a container carried by the aircraft and adapted to contain said material;
means for releasing said material from the container; and
means for controlling the release means, the control means being responsive to an approximation of the difference in pressure between the material within the container adjacent to the release means and air outside the container adjacent to the release means.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An airborne container for a liquid or other flowable material has bottom doors which are opened to release the material on the ground below the aircraft. To maintain a specified coverage level, a control system which includes a digital controller repeatedly calculates a differential pressure across the doors and varies the position of the doors to maintain a constant material flow rate as the differential pressure varies. The control system closes the doors when a specified volume of material has been spread.
70 Citations
37 Claims
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1. A system for spreading a liquid or other flowable material on the ground from an aircraft at a specified coverage level, said system comprising:
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a container carried by the aircraft and adapted to contain said material; means for releasing said material from the container; and means for controlling the release means, the control means being responsive to an approximation of the difference in pressure between the material within the container adjacent to the release means and air outside the container adjacent to the release means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A system for spreading a liquid or other flowable material on the ground from an aircraft at a specified coverage level, said system comprising:
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a container carried by the aircraft and adapted to contain said material; means for releasing said material from the container; and means for controlling the release means, the control means being responsive to the difference in pressure between the material within the container adjacent to the release means and air outside the container adjacent to the release means. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. In a system for spreading a liquid or other flowable material on the ground from an aircraft, said system comprising a container carried by the aircraft and adapted to contain said material, means for releasing said material from the container, and means for controlling the release means, the control means being dependent upon a difference in pressure between the material within the container adjacent to the release means and air outside the container adjacent to the release means, a method for controlling the release of a specified volume of said material at a specified coverage level on the ground, said method comprising the steps of:
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a. calculating a material flow rate through the release means required to achieve the specified coverage level; b. calculating a volume of said material remaining in the container at which to terminate a release of the material in order to release the specified volume of the material; c. adjusting the release means to maintain the required material flow rate therethrough; d. calculating the volume of the material within the container; e. repeating steps c and d until the value calculated in step c is equal to or less than the value calculated in step b; and f. adjusting the release means to terminate the release of the material. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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Specification