US1521779A - Aeroplane-wing illuminated-sign attachment - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 6, 1925.

S. F. MARTIN AERO PLANE WI NG I LLUMI NATED S I GN ATTACHMENT Filed Jan. 28. 1924 2 Sheets-Sheot 1 m mu IN van TOR, TA|1LEY E MARTIN, 9 W a- A Home 2 Shoots-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 28. 1924 mm mm N m mm mm mm .vk m a! e r U U U fi W Y m w lNVEHTOR,

LY E MARTIN,

AH'OrHe sli htly STANLEY F. MARTIN, 0F INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, ASSIGrNORv TO AEROLIGET GOR- PORATION', O'F INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, A CORPORATION OF INDIANA.

AEROPLANE-W'ING ILLUMINATED-SIGN ATTACHMENT.

Application filed January 28, 1924;. Serial No. 689,057.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, STANLEY F. MARTIN,

a citizen of the United States, residing at" My invention relates to an improvement in aeroplane wing illuminated sign attachment and it is the primary purpose of my invention to provide means readily attachable to wings of aeroplanes for displaying illuminated characters and words that may b easily observed and read from the roun when the aeroplane is flying at sa e altitudes.

Many attempts have been made to adapt illuminated characters to the under sides of aeroplane wings as a means of night display and attraction, but such attempts have always heretofore been unsuccessful owing to the fact that the characters blur and run into each other and can not be distinguished at the lowest possible safe altitude and even represents the usual and well known type the ground observer must be directly under the plane to distinguish the display at lower altitudes.

My invention provides an illuminated display that may be easily read and distinguished from the ground when the plane is at altitudes of 3000 to 3500 feet and furthermore-may be equally well observed and distinguished from wide angles, sue as during the approach and retreat of the aeroplane over a considerable range. I

Further objects of my invention lie in the adaptation of my sign attachment to any wing without removing the wing cover, altering the wing in any, manner, or disturbing the struts; in the securing and shaping of my attachment to the aeroplane wing such that the flying ability and qualities are not interfered with; and in the inter-- changeability of the sign cover carrying the display. While my attachment practically doubles the thickness of the average sized aeroplane wing, I find that the attachment does notin anyway affect the handling of the aero lane other than the obtaining of a mtter response to the centre 8.

y mvention is primarily for use in night flyin although t e display, when lllllmlnate ma be observed in daylight; In using the i uminated display, at night, a very e'fiective means of presentin advertising and conveying of messages to t e ground observer is to be had, especially when a num ber of areoplanes'are used with their underside illuminated displays flashing on and off in sequence far up in thesky.

I accomplish these and other objects as may hereinafter appear by the means as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1, is a plan view of m illuminated sign attachment, attached to t e under side of the wing of an aeroplane, with a fragment of the cover broken away'to show the interiorconstruction; Fig. 2, an end elevation of an aeroplane wing with my sign attachment suspended under it; Fig. 3, a section taken on the line 33 of Fig. 1; Fig. 4., a section taken on the line 4-4 ofFig. 1, to show an auxiliary rib installation and Fig. 5 a front elevation of a leading edge brace.

Like characters indicate like parts in the several views of the drawings.

Referring to the drawings, the. wing 5 of an aeroplane wing and for the purposes of my invention is t e lower wing in other than mono-planes, in which 01 is the leading edge, 5, the trailing edge, ,0 the outer end, 03, the fuselage end, and e the under side. The wing 5 is built up in the usual and well'known manner with a coverh ing over the spars 6 and 7 and the transverse ribs 8 as shown in Figs. 3 and 4.

To the top of :the leading edge a of the wing 5, I attach a metal shell 9 by means of screws 10 assing through the shell 9 into the spar The shell 9 extends forwardly and downwardly to follow practicallythe same curvatures as the to side of the Wing,'and then is bent rearwar y parallel to the under side of the win to form a dro approximately equal to t e greatest thic ness of the wings. A similar trailing edge metal shell 11 is secured to the top side of the trailing edge b of the wing 5 by means of screws 12 extending through the shell 11 into the ribs8 as in Fig. 4. The shell 11 extends rearwardly and downwardly following approximately a slightly greater curvature than that of the upper side of the trailing edge I) and then forwardly parallel to the under side of the trailing edge b to give a drop as in the shell 9.

Within the shell 9 and the shell 11 are the angle strips 13 and 14 secured to the shells by rivets r. The angle strips 13 and 14 have a series of slots 15 as shown in Fig. 1, throughout their entire lengths. Secured to the angle strips 13 and 14 are a plurality of lamp receptacle bars 16 by means of bolts 1'? assing through each end of the bars 16 an the slots 15 in the angle strips 13 and 14. The receptacle bars 16 are adjustable longitudinally of the wing 5 within the slots 15. The bars 16 are preferably made of channel section to insure sufiicient rigidity with the desired lightness of Weight and are upwardly arched to give lamp clearance as shown in Fig. 3. On each bar 16 are dependingly mounted a plurality of lamp receptacles 18 that are placed in an-electrical circuit by means of the two-conductor cable 19 extending along the back of each bar 16, and connecting with each receptacle of that bar, which conductor in turn is tapped into the main feeder cable that is carried along the trailing edge angle strip 13 as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The cable 19 leads to a storage battery carried within the fuselage of the aeroplane. The lamp receptacles 18 are of the miniature base type and are adapted to receive the lamps 21 of the 68 volt, 4 c. p. size which I find give ample illumination without too quickly exhausting the storge battery. A suitable generator operated by the aeroplane engine may supply current as well as the storage battery, or a combination of both as is commonly used in an automobile.

A flange 22 formed in the lower rear end of the leading edge metal shell 9 and a correspondingflange 23'in-the lower front edge of the trailing edge metal shell 11 receive a light wood frame 24 to which is secured the sign cover 25. The sign composed of the frame 24 and cover 25 is attached to the shells 9 and 11 by means of machine screws 26 passing through the frame 24 and screwing into the screw-threaded holes in the shell flanges 22 and 23; The cover 25 is made of the usual aeroplane linen wing covering and has the desired display wording blocked out on it as the word Join in Fig. 1, while the remainder of the cover is rendered opaque such as by painting it black so as to leave that portion of the covering comprising the lettering translucent.

The bars 16 are n'eviously arranged according to the particular sign by suitable adjustments in the slots 15 and by removal where not required, by placing them immediately back of the lettering and removing those lamps 21 not coming back of the particular letter, as in the letter N in Fig. 1. In order to bring the sign cover 25 back up to conform to the same curvature as the underside e of the win 5, I place a number of auxiliary ribs 2 having the proper mamas displaced such as by vibration by means of a transverse wire 39 extending the length of my sign attachment and anchored at each end in headers 30 and 31 used to fill in the space at the ends of the attachment and to hold the ends of the frame 24. To prevent distortion and the breaking down of the metal shells 9 and 11, I use a plurality of leading edge braces 32, a front elevation of which is shown in Fig. 5, each having a screw 33 passing through its flange into the rib 8 and its, forward endfitting snugly into the shell 9, and a plurality of similar 5 by means of through rivets'as 35.

Any number of sign displays may be made up in advance of their use by havlng a corresponding number of frames 24 and covers 25, inasmuch as by using interchangeable frames 24, the remainder of my invention is adjustable to correspond, such as the placing of the auxiliary ribs 27 and the illuminating lamps 21 with their bars 16.

Having fully described my invention in the form now best known to me, I desire to point out that it is capable of many variations in structure without departing from the spirit of the invention, and I therefore do not desire to be limited to the precise form as shown, nor any more than may be required by the following claims.

I claim 1. In an aeroplane, the combination with a wing, and a source of electrical energy, of means for displaying signs, said means being an homolo ous'enlargement'of said wing and suspended below said wing and having an under opaque cover with translucent characters.

2. In an aeroplane, the combination with a wing and a source of electrical energy, of an opaque slgn cover having translucent characters, said sign cover being suspended below and having the same curvature as the under side of said wing, means of detachably securing said sign cover to said wing. and adjustable means for illuminating the characters of said sign cover.

3. In an aeroplane, the combination with a wing and a source of electrical energy, of an opaque sign cover having translucent characters, said sign cover being suspended below and having the same curvature as the under side of said wing, means of illuminating said characters a leading edge shell forming an homologous enlargement of the leadin ed e of said wing, a-trailing edge shell forming an homologous enlargement trailing edge braces 34, attached to the wing jun ters, means for illuminating said characters,

said sign cover having the same curvature as the under side of said wing, a leading edge shell forming an homologous enlargement of the leading ed e of said wing, a

trailing edge shell forming an homologous longitudinal edge of t enlargement of the trailing edge of thewing, said leading and trailing edge shells spacingsaid sign -eover apart from the under side of said wing and means for removably securing the sign cover to the shells of said leading and trailing edges.

5. In an aeroplane, the combination with a wing and a source of electrical energy, of an opaque cover having translucent characters, means for illuminating said characters said sign cover having the same curvature as the under side of said wing, a

leading edge shell forming an homologous enlargement of the leading edge of the wing, a trailing edge shell forming an homologous enlargement of the trailing edge of the wing, said leading and trailing edge shells spacing said sign cover below and apart from the under side of sand wing and a plurality of braces from the wing to both shells.

6. In an aeroplane, the combination with a wing, of an opaque sign cover having translucent characters and suspended below the wing, means for detachably securing the sign cover to the wing, a plurality of laterally adjustable electric lamp support-' ing bars between the cover and the wing,

and a plurality of electric lamps for each bar each lamp being removably secured to its bar.

7 In an aeroplane, the combination with a wing, of an o aque sign cover having characters suspen ed below the wing, means for detachably securing the Sign cover to the wing, a lamp bar support a jacent each e wing, each bar having a plurality of longitudinal slots, a plurality of lamp-supporting bars extending from one of said bar supports to the other, bolts passing through the bars and through the slots in the bar supports, and a plurality of lamps removably secured to each bar.

8. In an aeroplane, the combination with a wing, of a hollow extension below the wing comprisin an underside si sheet, a plurality of ii cure of the lower side of the wing located between the sheet and the win and means for securing the sheet to the ri a.

9. In an aeroplane, the combination with conforming to t e curvw of said wing, a trailing edge shell forming an homologous enlargement of the trailing edge of the'wing,-a sign cover frame secured to both edge shells and supported in part thereby, a sign cover attached to the frame and a source of light between the sign co ver and wing.

11. In an aeroplane, the combination with a Wing, of a hollow extension below the wing comprising shells attached to the upper sides of the leading and the trailing edges of the wing and extending thence outwardly and downwardly in ap roximately the same curvature as that of t e adjacent wing edge and then inwardly parallel with the adjacent under side of the wing, detachable sign closure means connecting the leading edge shell with the trailing edge shell, and means for bracing the shells.

12. In an aeroplane, the combination with a wing, of a hollow extension below the wing comprising shells attached to the upper sides of the leading and of the trailing edges of the wing and extending thence outwardly and downwardly in approximately the same curvature as the adjacent wing edge of the respective shells and thence inwardly parallelwith the adjacent under side of the wing, headers to which the ends of the shells are attached, detachable sign closure means connecting the leading edge shell with the trailing edge shell, and means between the headers for bracin the shells.

13. In an aeroplane, the combination with a wing, of a shell attached to the upper side of the leading edge of the wing and extending thence outwardly and downwardlyin approximately the same curvature as that edge of the wing and thence inwardly parallel with the adjacent under side of the wing, at second shell attached to the trailing edge of the wing and Xtending thence outwardly and downwardly in ap roximately the same curvature as its e go of the wing and thence inwardly parallel with the adjacent under side of the wing, headers to which the ends of the shells are attached, means between the headers for bracing the shells, ribs extending from one shell to the other curved to conform with the under side curvature of the win and e si closure for the space boun ed by the she s and headers, adjustable means 0 illuminating said sign closure and means or securing the closure to the shells and headers and means for securing the closure to the ribs.

14. In an aeroplane, the combination with a wing, of an opaque sign cover having translucent characters sus ended below the wing, means for detacha 1y securing the Sign cover to the win a lamp bar support a jacent each longitu inal edge of the wing,

each bar having a plurality of longitudinal slots, a plurality'of lamp-supporting bars extendin to the ot er, bolts passing through the bars from one of said bar supports.

and through the slots in the he! supports, and a plurality of lampsremovably secured to each bar, said lamps, lamp bars and lamplamps immediately behind said translucent all characters.

Signed at Indianapolis, Indiana, this 24th. day of January, 1924.

- STANLEY'F. MARTIN.

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