Abstract:
A passenger loading and unloading ramp, bridge, tunnel, gangway or conveyance for airplanes provided at its outer end with a cab having a flexible canopy structure providing a weathertight seal between the cab and the fuselage of the airplane around a doorway with which the passageway through the cab registers. The canopy structure includes a canopy frame assembly which includes a series of canopy frames spaced-apart longitudinally of and enclosing the passageway through the cab, each frame having the general configuration of an inverted U and including laterally spaced, generally upright arms located on opposite sides of the passageway and connected at their lower ends to the supporting structure of the cab. The canopy frames are rigid transversely of the passageway through the cab, but the arms of the frames are flexible longitudinally of the passageway. With this construction, the canopy frame assembly may flex as required to permit the canopy structure to achieve weathertight seals with a wide variety of airplane fuselage configurations.