Aircraft Winch-Lifted Cargo Alignment With a Guide Track
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing aircraft with cable winches for transporting piece goods experience unstable flight attitudes due to freely hanging parts, leading to high air resistance, energy consumption, and inefficient loading/unloading processes due to unpredictable orientation changes.
Innovation Solution
An alignment device with an alignment member and mating part that aligns a piece good part relative to the aircraft's yaw axis using a guide track and sliding surface, allowing rotation via a cable winch, without complex controls, ensuring a defined and energy-efficient alignment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the piece good part hangs freely on the cable winch during flight operation, then the loading and unloading process is simple, but the piece good part aligns with the flight direction causing high air resistance and energy consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The guide track serves as an intermediary mechanical structure between the cable winch and the piece good part. As the cable winch retracts, the piece good part interacts with the guide track's inclined surface, which automatically orients the piece good part perpendicular to the flight direction without requiring complex active control systems
Solution Approach 2:
The piece good part automatically orients itself perpendicular to the flight direction through passive interaction with the guide track during cable winch retraction. The geometry of the guide track ensures that the piece good part aligns in the optimal position without requiring external control inputs or additional actuators
2Device complexity
If the piece good part hangs freely on the cable winch, then the fastening mechanism is simple, but the orientation of the piece good part changes unpredictably during flight operation
Solution Approach 1:
The guide track acts as a mechanical intermediary that mediates between the simple hanging fastening and the desired stable orientation. The inclined surface of the guide track passively guides the piece good part into a stable perpendicular orientation relative to the flight direction
Solution Approach 2:
The guide track employs an inclined curved surface that guides the piece good part from a horizontal hanging position to a vertical orientation perpendicular to the flight direction. This curved geometry ensures smooth transition and stable final positioning
3Ease of operation
If the piece good part is manually fastened to the cable winch, then the fastening process is simple, but the loading and unloading process becomes time-consuming due to orientation assessment
Solution Approach 1:
The guide track performs the orientation alignment action automatically during the necessary cable winch retraction process. By the time the piece good part is fully retracted and secured, it is already in the correct perpendicular orientation, eliminating the need for subsequent orientation assessment and adjustment
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-alignment of the piece good part during the normal retraction operation. The piece good part automatically orients itself perpendicular to the flight direction through interaction with the guide track, eliminating the need for manual orientation checks and adjustments
Data Source
AI summary
An alignment device aligns a piece good part, which is received by a cable winch, relative to a yaw axis of an aircraft. An alignment member is fastened on an underside of the aircraft, and an alignment mating part fixed to the piece good part. In use, the alignment mating part has an alignment lug pointing towards the aircraft. The alignment member has a guide track having a sliding surface facing the alignment mating part. When the alignment mating part is displaced towards the aircraft, the alignment lug of the alignment mating part abuts the sliding surface through retraction of the cable winch. During further axial displacement of the alignment mating part towards the aircraft, through further retraction of the cable winch, the alignment lug slides along the sliding surface. This causes the alignment mating part to rotate and align the piece good part with the aircraft.