Aircraft door installation

摘要

An aircraft exterior door installation with a door attached to an airframe. A damper is arranged to damp motion of the door as it is opened by rotating it away from the airframe. A coupling mechanism couples the damper with the door over an opening damping range and decouples the damper from the door at the end of the opening damping range. The damper does not damp the motion of the door as it opens beyond the opening damping range. Instead of damping the door over its full range of motion, it is only damped over a limited inner range of its motion. A further advantage of decoupling the door and the damper is that the damper does not need to extend into the airflow to the same extent as the door, thus minimizing aerodynamic drag.

主权项

1. An aircraft exterior door installation comprising a door pivotally attached to an airframe, the aircraft exterior door installation comprising:
a damper which is arranged to damp motion of the door as the door is opened by rotating the door away from the airframe; and a coupling mechanism which is arranged to couple the damper with the door over an opening damping range and decouple the damper from the door at an end of the opening damping range so that the damper does not damp the motion of the door as it opens further beyond the opening damping range; wherein the coupling mechanism comprises a fitting carried on the door and a coupling member pivotally attached to the damper; and wherein the coupling member is arranged to engage the fitting over the opening damping range and disengage from the fitting when the door opens beyond the opening damping range.