Abstract: Systems and methods for mitigating the risk of and/or suppressing fires caused by lithium battery-powered personal computing devices used on the flight deck or in crew and passenger compartments onboard an aircraft. A fire detection and suppression pack is attached to a lithium-ion battery-powered portable personal computing device. The fire detection and suppression pack has a weight and volume consistent with and does not impair the use of the portable personal computing device. The fire detection and suppression pack is a full-time fire suppression system that is on hot standby at all times, independent of the computing device's power mode. The fire detection and suppression pack uses gases stored in canisters to provide cool-down, displacement suppressant to control and extinguish any fire source and associated burnable fuel required to sustain the fire event.

Abstract: Systems and methods for mitigating the risk of and/or suppressing fires caused by lithium battery-powered personal computing devices used on the flight deck or in crew and passenger compartments onboard an aircraft. A fire detection and suppression pack is attached to a lithium-ion battery-powered portable personal computing device. The fire detection and suppression pack has a weight and volume consistent with and does not impair the use of the portable personal computing device. The fire detection and suppression pack is a full-time fire suppression system that is on hot standby at all times, independent of the computing device's power mode. The fire detection and suppression pack uses gases stored in canisters to provide cool-down, displacement suppressant to control and extinguish any fire source and associated burnable fuel required to sustain the fire event.

Abstract: According to one embodiment, an apparatus for cooling at least one landing gear brake of an aircraft in flight is described. The apparatus includes an air handling assembly that is coupled to the aircraft. The air handling assembly includes at least one air inlet port. The apparatus also includes an air delivery assembly that is in air receiving communication with the air handling assembly. The air delivery assembly includes at least one nozzle that is configured to direct air into a first space adjacent a first side of the landing gear brake to create an air pressure differential across the landing gear brake.

Abstract: An aircraft includes an engine mounted to a wing by a first support, such as a strut, configured to secure the engine to the wing in a position above the wing. A second support, secured to a fuselage portion of the aircraft, is defined by a bridge structure configured to separately and independently secure the engine to the fuselage. The engine is thus secured by the first support directly to the aircraft wing, and via the second support, in concert with the first, to a portion of an aircraft fuselage spaced laterally of the engine-to-wing attachment. In one embodiment the bridge structure, which extends between the engine and fuselage, may be bowed upwardly so as to define a convex curvature when viewed along the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. Such a curvature may, inter alia, optimize aerodynamic spacing of the bridge from the wing to minimize undesirable shock waves.

Abstract: An autonomous, stand alone fire detection and suppression apparatus has a fire suppression pack that is imbedded or positioned at the center of a three-dimensional array stack of boxes and a plurality of radio-frequency identification transponders on each box of the stack of boxes. The transponders are operable to sense an undesirable event, for example a fire in the stack of boxes and communicate with the fire suppression pack at the center of the stack of boxes causing the fire suppression pack to eject a fire suppressant into the stack of boxes surrounding each box, separating adjacent boxes from each other and other stacks of boxes and from the shipping container containing the boxes.

Abstract: An autonomous, stand alone fire detection and suppression apparatus has a fire suppression pack that is imbedded or positioned at the center of a three-dimensional array stack of boxes and a plurality of radio-frequency identification transponders on each box of the stack of boxes. The transponders are operable to sense an undesirable event, for example a fire in the stack of boxes and communicate with the fire suppression pack at the center of the stack of boxes causing the fire suppression pack to eject a fire suppressant into the stack of boxes surrounding each box, separating adjacent boxes from each other and other stacks of boxes and from the shipping container containing the boxes.

Abstract: An aircraft includes an engine mounted to a wing by a first support, such as a strut, configured to secure the engine to the wing in a position above the wing. A second support, secured to a fuselage portion of the aircraft, is defined by a bridge structure configured to separately and independently secure the engine to the fuselage. The engine is thus secured by the first support directly to the aircraft wing, and via the second support, in concert with the first, to a portion of an aircraft fuselage spaced laterally of the engine-to-wing attachment. In one embodiment the bridge structure, which extends between the engine and fuselage, may be bowed upwardly so as to define a convex curvature when viewed along the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. Such a curvature may, inter alia, optimize aerodynamic spacing of the bridge from the wing to minimize undesirable shock waves.

Abstract: Hydraulic valves such as hydraulic flow control valves, pressure regulating valves, and servo valves are all formed with metering passageways which reduce and eliminate their susceptibility to electro-kinetic corrosion erosion that occurs at very low quantity flow and at very high velocity when the valves are in their null position or nearly shut off. The metering passages and the metering edges comprising the overall metering passageways are shaped to favorably control the flow characteristics of phosphate ester based fluids, which, if not controlled favorably would produce severe electrokinetic streaming current and its wall current, which would induce electrokinetic corrosion erosion. The shapes and dimensions of the metering passages and metering surfaces are derived from the results of a mathematical quantitative analysis.