Reporter's Statement of the Case

Loening-Amphibian Aeroplane

44. A contract was entered into on November 8, 1923, with the Loening Aeronautical Engineering Corporation of New York, for the construction of a plane known as the LoeningAmphibian Aeroplane. Such plane was accepted by the Government on September 3, 1924, and others have since been ordered.

The body of the machine comprises a main hull portion having landing wheels provided on each side thereof. These

(1) Loening-Amphibian Aeroplane (retracted)

wheels are mounted on a retractable chassis comprising a triangular frame hinged to rotate about an axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the aeroplane so that the wheels are adapted to fold up upwardly and inwardly. The hull is also provided with pockets therethrough in which the operating mechanism for a wheeled landing gear is located. The wheels are mounted upon two frames each retractable into the transverse space through the hull. The hull is also provided with pockets for the wheels of considerably larger dimensions than the wheels. The wheels when in retracted position partially enter the pockets in the upper side of the

14

Reporter's Statement of the Case

hull. There is also provided for each frame a longitudinal strut connected to the chine line of the float and to the wheel. In the side of the hull there is a groove in which a portion of this strut lies when in a retracted position, and, when in such position, this strut provides a partial closure for the groove. The main wheel supporting struts are provided with a flat fairing or plate so shaped as to conform to the surface of the hull when the landing gear is retracted and therefore form an automatic closure for the hull sheathing. This closure plate is shown in a retracted position in the appended illustration (1) of the Loening retractable gear, and, by overlapping the edges of the sheathing, functions

to form, with the sheathing or surface of the hull, a substantially continuous outer fuselage surface. The primary purpose for the apron overlapping the transverse openings through the hull is to prevent water entering the hull at the chine line. While the use of the apron or flat fairing reduces the air drag, such reduction is small compared with the total drag produced by the other openings which are only partially closed by the wheels and struts when in a retracted position. The relationship between the groove and the strut is such that the only closure for the groove is a partial closure caused by the presence of a portion of the rounded strut lying within the groove.

The landing gear frame work of this aeroplane includes a single diagonal strut for each wheel, as shown in the ap

Reporter's Statement of the Case

pended illustration, (2), of the Loening-Amphibian Aeroplane, which landing gear, under certain landing conditions, may be subject to both tensile and concussion stresses. This strut member, however, is not for crosswise bracing, but is located approximately in a fore and aft position, and is thus substantially similar in function and location to the single strut disclosed in the French patent to Monin and Foucault (see finding 30).

PW-8 Aeroplane

45. A contract was entered into on April 27, 1923, with the Curtis Aeroplane & Motor Corporation of New York, for the construction of the first plane of this type and it was accepted at Mitchell Field, New York, on May 11, 1923.

The landing gear of this type of aeroplane is of the nonretractable or fixed type, as shown in the appended illustration.

It comprises a strut structure which is pivoted to the base of the aeroplane for motion in a plane transverse to the longitudinal axis of the plane. The purpose of this pivoting is to permit a restricted lateral and vertical movement of the cross braces which are connected at their upper ends to the shock absorbers. This landing gear possesses a single diagonal strut which is adapted to receive both tensile and concussion shearing stress.

There is not present in this structure any "swinging frame" having the same function or effect as that of the patent in suit, i. e., to permit the frame to be swung about an axis for the purpose of retracting the same.

46. The first characteristic of the patent in suit relates to a retractable landing gear frame having a flat surface, which flat surface cooperates with the fuselage sheathing at the sides of slots or grooves therein to produce, with respect to the landing gear frame only, a substantially continuous outer fuselage surface when the landing gear is in a retracted position. This feature does not represent invention over what was known and shown in prior patents.

If this feature should be held to constitute invention, this characteristic, as expressed by the terminology of claims 3, 10, 11, 13, 14, 17, and 18, is found to be applicable to the

of invention the terminology of these enumerated claims applied to the Verville-Sperry Aeroplane when it was operated with fairings attached to the landing-gear frame members.

Reporter's Statement of the Case

Loening Amphibian aeroplanes in which an apron or cover plate attached to the main wheel supporting struts of the landing gear frame functions automatically to close this fuselage slot when the frame is retracted. On like condition

PW-8 Aeroplane,

Reporter's Statement of the Case

47. The terminology of this same group of claims is approached in the structure of the Verville-Sperry plane without the fairings, and the Bee-Line Racer plane, where the structures do not comprise a continuous outer fuselage surface or flush closure, but in which rounded members of the chassis frame when in the retracted position, lie within grooves in the fuselage sheathing and by virtue of a partial conformity between the frame members and the grooves approach a substantially flush surface in that resistance to the air is decreased.

48. The second characteristic of the patent in suit relates to the closing of the slots in the fuselage when the landing gear is in an extended position. This feature is expressed by claims 4 and 6 of the patent in suit, and the terminology of these claims is found to be applicable to the VervilleSperry Aeroplane as first manufactured, in which construction rubber sheeting was applied across the slots in the fuselage so that when the chassis was either in an extended or retracted position, the rubber sheeting would form a closure for the apertures in the fuselage. There is no disclosure of this construction in any of the prior art patents or publications.

49. The third characteristic of the patent in suit relates to a single diagonal strut adapted to receive both concussion and tensile stresses in cooperation with a swinging retractable chassis frame. This feature is expressed by claim 5. The invention in suit is specifically directed to a retractable landing gear and the terminology of claim 5 includes, as an element, "a swinging frame," the function and purpose of which is retractability. In the PW-8 Aeroplane construction, a single diagonal strut is utilized, but such strut is not for the function and purpose of strengthening a swinging retractable frame, but is for the purpose of transmitting stresses to a shock absorber. The terminology of claim 5 is not, therefore, applicable to the PW-8 Aeroplane.

If the terminology of this claim be applied to the fore and aft strut of the Loening-Amphibian plane, it is applicable with equal facility to the prior art French patent to Monin and Foucault.