Variable Width Cockpit Door Panels for Space-Constrained Aircraft Barriers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional aircraft interior cabin doors are monolithic, opaque, and lack a secondary barrier to prevent unauthorized access to the cockpit when the cockpit door is opened, posing a challenge in meeting regulatory requirements and ensuring passenger safety.
Innovation Solution
An auxiliary access control barrier (AACB) with laterally extendable door panels, a hinge system, and locks is installed within an aircraft fuselage, allowing the door to pivot between a deployed and stowed position, providing a variable width to fit tight spaces and allowing visibility through viewports, while securing the door at specific widths to prevent unauthorized access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a monolithic door construction is used, then the door provides structural strength and simplicity, but it requires a large space envelope for door travel and storage
Solution Approach 1:
The door is divided into multiple panels (first door panel and second door panel) that can move relative to each other. The panels are connected via fingers and slots allowing lateral movement to adjust the width of the barrier, enabling the door to fit within tighter space envelopes while maintaining structural integrity through the interlocking panel design.
2Device complexity
If a monolithic door construction is used, then the door is simple in structure, but it precludes situational awareness through opacity
Solution Approach 1:
The door panels incorporate viewports at specific locations to provide situational awareness while maintaining overall barrier functionality. The fingers and slots create additional viewing gaps that allow crew members to observe the area beyond the barrier without compromising the door's structural role or requiring complete transparency.
3Reliability
If a fixed width door is used, then the door provides consistent barrier protection, but it cannot adapt to different aircraft configurations or tight spaces
Solution Approach 1:
The door system incorporates movable panels that can laterally shift relative to each other through the finger-slot mechanism. This dynamic capability allows the barrier width to be adjusted to match different opening sizes in various aircraft configurations, while the panels can be locked into position to maintain consistent protective function when deployed.
4Reliability
If the door is designed to provide full coverage width, then it prevents unauthorized access effectively, but it obstructs visibility and requires more storage space
Solution Approach 1:
The door panels incorporate viewports at specific locations to provide situational awareness while maintaining overall barrier functionality. The fingers and slots create additional viewing gaps that allow crew members to observe the area beyond the barrier without compromising the door's structural role.
Solution Approach 2:
The door is divided into multiple panels (first door panel and second door panel) that can move relative to each other. The panels are connected via fingers and slots allowing lateral movement to adjust the width of the barrier, enabling the door to fit within tighter space envelopes while maintaining structural integrity through the interlocking panel design.
Data Source
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AI summary
An aircraft is equipped with an auxiliary access control barrier (AACB) to prevent access to an area of the aircraft. The AACB includes laterally extendable door panels that are slidably attached to each other to vary a width of the AACB, a hinge by which the door panels are pivotably attached to the aircraft, such that the door panels are pivotable between a deployed position, in which the door panels are positioned across the opening to prevent passage through the opening and in which the AACB has a first width, and a stowed position, in which the door panels are positioned to allow passage through the opening and in which the AACB has a second width, and one or more locks to prevent relative motion between the door panels to fix the width of the AACB and/or to secure the AACB within the opening in the bulkhead.