The patent application concerns an inflatable roadway which includes elongate flexible upper and lower panels secured and sealed together about their peripheries. The roadway is stored and transported in a laterally rolled configuration and when it is placed on the near side of an area of unfirm terrain, it is immediately ready for deployment. Coupling a source of pressurized gas to an appropriately disposed fitting on the roadway inflates at least one longitudinal envelope to cause an unrolling of the roadway across the unfirm area. A multitude of strands extending between the upper and lower panels ensures that the exposed surface of the upper panel maintains an essentially flat configuration. Personnel and vehicles can safely traverse the body of water, thin ice, swamp or similar unfirm areas safely. An air bearing cargo transportor also can traverse the unfirm terrain since the strands ensure that a smooth upper exposed surface is presented for pnuematic cooperation with the air bearing.
Inflatable Roadway
1975
16 pages
Report
No indication
English
NTIS | 1975
|Engineering Index Backfile | 1902