Ellipse domed structure

Claim 1

A self-supporting, elliptical, dome structure comprising a plurality of rigid, polygonal panels secured together around their peripheral edges to define a hollow enclosure having a generally horizontal bottom edge, said panels including a plurality of hexagonal panels and a plurality of pentagonal panels having their edges connected, all of said panels being flat and provided with an inwardly extending flange along each edge thereof, each edge flange being straight and flat, said edge flanges and the flat panel having an included angle of substantially 83*, said panels being arranged with a pentagonal panel at the apex of the dome structure with the five side edges thereof being of equal length and the included corner angles being equal, five arcuate rows of hexagonal panels disposed oUtwardly and arcuately downwardly from the apical pentagonal panel along arcuate paths defining great circles of the dome structure, the top and bottom edges of the hexagonal panels being equal in length to the side edges of the apical pentagonal panel, said rows of hexagonal panels defining five identical spherical isosceles triangles each having an apex in the center of the apical pentagonal panel, two sides defined by lines through the centers of the rows of hexagonal panels and a base along the bottom edge of the dome structure, each spherical isosceles triangle including a central pentagonal panel oriented centrally between the arcuate rows of hexagonal panels and having its base line generally parallel to the bottom edge of the dome structure, a first circular row of five identical hexagonal panels encircling and connected to each of said central pentagonal panels, a second circular row of ten hexagonal panels encircling and connected to the first row of five hexagonal panels with three of the hexagonal panels at opposite portions of the second row being connected with the hexagonal panels in the arcuate rows and the lowermost hexagonal panel in the second row having its lower edge defining a portion of the bottom edge of the dome structure, a group of three connected upper filler hexagonal panels connected to the second circular row of hexagonal panels and the arcuate rows of hexagonal panels, a lower filler hexagonal panel connected to the second circular row of hexagonal panels and each arcuate row of hexagonal panels with the lower edge of each lower filler hexagonal panel defining a portion of the bottom edge of the dome structure, each arcuate row of hexagonal panels having a half hexagonal filler panel connected thereto with the lower edge thereof defining a portion of the bottom edge of the dome structure, and a half hexagonal filler panel connected to the lowermost panel in the second circular row of panels and each of the lower hexagonal filler panels with the lower edges thereof defining a portion of the bottom edge of the dome structure, said dome structure being enlarged by increasing the length of each side of the apical pentagonal panel, each top and bottom edge of each hexagonal panel in each arcuate row and the top and bottom edge of each half hexagonal filler panel in each arcuate row while leaving all other pentagonal and hexagonal panels the same size and in the same orientation.