Abstract: A skeletal frame supporting a continuous sealed, flattened plastic film tube for retaining gas under positive pressure. The tube has opposed edges with a flexible film retainer line passing therethrough and extending beyond the end thereof to form edge beads. Guide strips having integral track means are positioned on opposite edges of the guide strip. The guide tracks receive and guide an edge of the flattened film tube drawn therethrough by the retainer line and retain the retainer line and film tube means in place on the skeletal structure. The plastic film tube of the fully assembled structure is a sealed envelope filled with a gas under positive pressure. In the preferred fully assembled wall structure, the plastic film has the form of a flattened four film layer forming two air-filled insulating layers. The film layer is formed from two concentric tubes, sealed at the ends to form a tubular sealed envelope, and the double walls are sealed to form a tubular envelope.

Abstract: A "no-lift" container trailer is disclosed having a vertically movable roller tray with parallel rollers thereon which when tangent to the roll plane, and solely support a container thereon allow the container to be moved onto or off the trailer. A vertically movable caster tray of the trailer has fixed caster wheels thereon with their axes of rotation intersecting a vertical axis near the center of the trailer. When the wheels provide sole support for the container at the roll plane the container may be rotated about the vertical axis to any desired position. Manually operated cams are provided to sequentially move only the rollers tangent to the roll plane for supporting the container only on the rollers to move both the rollers and wheels tangent to the roll plane, and to move the rollers below the roll plane for supporting the container only on the wheels thus transferring the containers between the rollers and the wheel at the roll plane without lifting the container.

Abstract: A mobile cargo handling system and method is provided for transferring containers relatively long distances between two locations by a steerable, self-propelled transporter which is connected to a dolly supported on swivel casters so that the longitudinal axes of the transporter and dolly are maintained parallel to a vertical plane when the system is moving along a circuitous path. The dolly includes a roller deck, and the transporter includes a powered roller deck which is selectively controlled to drive one or more containers onto and off of both roller decks.

Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed for de-icing aircraft with hot water alone or with a mixture of hot water and a thixotropic de-icing fluid. The apparatus includes a centrifugal de-icing pump which is driven through a clutch only when de-icing fluid is being used thereby minimizing detrimental shear to the thixotropic fluid which shear causes fluid breakdown and reduction of viscosity. Several flow and pressure responsive controls are provided to control the engaging the disengaging of the clutch.The de-icing step may be followed by an anti-icing step if needed.