Apparatus for supporting a load

Claim 2

An aircraft or spacecraft structure of the kind incorporating a cargo bay and including a detachable load mounted within the bay wherein the load is at least partially supported within the bay by supporting means comprising, in combination, at least one pair of fluid devices, the devices of each pair being positioned at diametrically opposite sides of the load, and fluid interconnection means interconnecting the devices of each pair so as to resist relative similar movements between opposite sides of the load and said structure in a predetermined direction and in a predetermined plane, but to allow limited differential movements between said opposite sides of the load and said structure in said predetermined direction and in said predetermined plane.

Claim 3

Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the structure and the load are both space craft.

Claim 4

Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 including two pairs of said fluid devices and associated interconnection means arranged with the predetermined planes at angles to each other.

Claim 5

Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the said pairs of fluid devices are spaced from each other in the lengthwise direction of the load.

Claim 6

Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein each fluid device includes a piston and cylinder operatively connecting the load and the structure.

Claim 7

Apparatus as claimed in claim 5 including carriage means between the load and each fluid device, connecting means for connecting said load to said carriage means, and guide means for guiding said carriage means.

Claim 8

Apparatus as claimed in claim 6 wherein said connecting means is readily releasable.

Claim 9

In combination: a first space craft having a cargo bay; a second space craft removably received in said cargo bay; a first set of complementary fastener means secured on the first space craft within the cargo bay; a second set of complementaRy fastener means secured on the second space craft; respective ones of the fastener means of the first set being configured to releasably engage respective ones of the fastener means of the second set to releasably mount the second space craft in the cargo bay of the first space craft; for each pair of releasably engaged fastener means, a closed fluid-filled cylinder having a piston slidably received therein, having rod means projecting through the cylinder, each such fluid-filled cylinder, piston and rod constituting a fluid device, these fluid devices being angularly spaced from one another about the second space craft and having their longitudinal axes substantially parallel; each fluid device being interposed between a respective one of said fastener means and the securement thereof on the respective space craft; first conduit means interconnecting each of said cylinders with another of said cylinders on corresponding same sides of the respective pistons; and second conduit means interconnecting the same cylinders which are interconnected by the first conduit means, but on corresponding opposite sides of the respective pistons, whereby; as an elaboration on the releasable fastening of the second space craft to the first space craft by the releasable engagement of the fastener means, the interconnected fluid means resist similarly directed movements between angularly spaced points corresponding to the dispositions of the fastener means whose securements incorporate the interconnected cylinders on the second space craft relative to the first space craft, but permit limited differentially directed movements between those points.

Claim 10

In combination: a first space craft having a cargo bay; a second space craft removably received in said cargo bay; a first set of complementary fastener means secured on the first space craft within the cargo bay; a second set of complementaRy fastener means secured on the second space craft; respective ones of the fastener means of the first set being configured to releasably engage respective ones of the fastener means of the second set to releasably mount the second space craft in the cargo bay of the first space craft; for each pair of releasably engaged fastener means, a closed fluid-filled cylinder having a piston slidably received therein, having rod means projecting through the cylinder, each such fluid-filled cylinder, piston and rod constituting a fluid device, these fluid devices being angularly spaced from one another about the second space craft and having their longitudinal axes substantially parallel; each fluid device being interposed between a respective one of said fastener means and the securement thereof on the respective space craft; first conduit means interconnecting each of said cylinders with another of said cylinders on corresponding same sides of the respective pistons; and second conduit means interconnecting the same cylinders which are interconnected by the first conduit means, but on corresponding opposite sides of the respective pistons, whereby; as an elaboration on the releasable fastening of the second space craft to the first space craft by the releasable engagement of the fastener means, the interconnected fluid means resist similarly directed movements between angularly spaced points corresponding to the dispositions of the fastener means whose securements incorporate the interconnected cylinders on the second space craft relative to the first space craft, but permit limited differentially directed movements between those points.

Claim 11

The apparatus of claim 8 further including: for each first-mentioned fluid device, a second, substantially like fluid device, aligned on an axis orthogonal to that of the respective first-mentioned fluid device associated therewith; each second fluid device also being interposed between a respective one of said fastener means and the securement thereof on the respective space craft, in series with the associated first-mentioned fluid device; third conduit means interconnecting each of said cylinders of the second fluid devices with another of said cylinders of the second fluid devices on corresponding same sides of the respective pistons; and fourth conduit means interconnecting the same cylinders which are interconnected by the third conduit means, but on corresponding opposite sides of the respective pistons.