Floating airport and method of its construction

Claim 1

A floating aircraft runway constructed from a plurality of preformed modules rigidly joined to one another with their top surfaces in a common plane to define the runway, the improvement wherein said modules comprise rectangular blocks having a hollow center and having their top, bottom, and side walls integrally formed from a continuous mass of concrete reinforced with elongaged steel reinforcing members, a mass of low density cellular polymeric material filling the hollow center of said blocks to exclude water therefrom, a vertically extending undercut groove formed in each side wall of said blocks and extending the full height thereof and terminating at the top end in an opening in the top surface of said top wall, said grooves being roughened over substantially the entire surface thereof, a steel bearing plate integrally joined to and extEnding along the peripheral edges of said blocks, said blocks being joined in said runway in side-by-side relation with said undercut grooves in adjacent sides of joining blocks being disposed opposite one another, a reinforced concrete locking member disposed within and extending between said opposed undercut grooves, said locking members comprising an assembly of steel reinforcing rods positioned within and extending between said opposed grooves, concrete poured into the voids within and joined to the roughened surface of said opposed grooves to rigidly and permanently interlock the adjacent blocks, said reinforcing rods in said top wall being arranged in a diamond pattern with the individual rods being inclined at an acute angle with respect to the side edges of said top wall whereby a portion of the rods effectively extend between said undercut grooves on adjacent side walls of each said block, a coating of waterproof, low friction polymeric material covering at least the side walls and the bottom wall of said rectangular blocks, and a layer of resilient bituminous surfacing material covering the top walls of said blocks and forming a continuous smooth runway surface.

Claim 5

The method of constructing a floating aircraft runway from a plurality of preformed modules joined to one another, said method comprising the steps of casting said modules from reinforced concrete in the configuration of hollow rectangular blocks with top, bottom and side walls thereof being integrally formed from a continuous mass of concrete reinforced with a plurality of elongated steel reinforcing members, said step of casting said modules including the steps forming an elongated vertically extending undercut groove having roughened surfaces centrally of each said side wall and extending the length thereof, arranging the elongated reinforcing members in said top wall in a diamond patterned grid with the individual members inclined at an acute angle with respect to the side edges of the wall, reinforcing the peripheral edges of said modules by integrally joining a bearing plate thereto extending the full length of said peripheral edges, filling the hollow interior of said modules with a solid mass of low density polymeric material capable of excluding the water from the interior of the modules, coating the exterior surface of said modules with a waterproof coating material, securing a plurality of said modules in side-by-side relation in an open body of water with their top surfaces in a common horizontal plane and with the undercut recesses in the adjacent sides in opposed relationship to define an open-topped cavity, sealing the bottom of the cavity against the water, filling the cavity in situ by initially positioning an assembly of steel reinforcing members into said cavity with said assembly spanning said opposed undercut grooves, and filling the voids in said cavity with concrete and permitting the concrete to harden to rigidly interlock the modules, and covering the top surface of the joined modules with a resilient bituminous surfacing material to form a smooth continuous runway surface.

Claim 6

The method of constructing a floating aircraft runway from a plurality of preformed modules joined to one another, said method comprising the steps of casting said modules from reinforced concrete in the configuration of hollow rectangular blocks with top, bottom and side walls thereof being integrally formed from a continuous mass of concrete reinforced with a plurality of elongated steel reinforcing members, said step of casting said modules including the steps forming an elongated vertically extending undercut groove having roughened surfaces centrally of each said side wall and extending the length thereof, arranging the elongated reinforcing members in said top wall in a diamond patterned grid with the individual members inclined at an acute angle with respect to the side edges of the wall, reinforcing the peripheral edges of said modules by integrally joining a bearing plate thereto extending the full length of said peripheral edges, filling the hollow interior of said modules with a solid mass of low density polymeric material capable of excluding the water from the interior of the modules, coating the exterior surface of said modules with a waterproof coating material, securing a plurality of said modules in side-by-side relation in an open body of water with their top surfaces in a common horizontal plane and with the undercut recesses in the adjacent sides in opposed relationship to define an open-topped cavity, sealing the bottom of the cavity against the water, filling the cavity in situ by initially positioning an assembly of steel reinforcing members into said cavity with said assembly spanning said opposed undercut grooves, and filling the voids in said cavity with concrete and permitting the concrete to harden to rigidly interlock the modules, and covering the top surface of the joined modules with a resilient bituminous surfacing material to form a smooth continuous runway surface.