Process for the aerial transportation of prefabricated buildings.

p0001The present invention relates to a method for air transport, to the place of final installation of residential and other buildings that are prebuilt in the factory. The term "building" means, in the following, as well as a complete building a building part forming a structural unit.

p0002More particularly, this invention relates to the transport ships that eventually made based on foundations for a building, by one or more tanks having not only a supporting element role, but the functions of storage and energy return heating the or each tank being filled with a heat transfer fluid can be heated in particular by solar collectors. The principle of such a building, and various specific embodiments are described in French Patents No. 2,465,175, No. 2,524,124 and No. 2,524,125 in the name of the Applicant.

p0003Moreover, the transport of houses using aerostats already envisaged to transport small dwellings from a manufacturing plant of these homes to their place of permanent arrangement allowing:     - An economic industrial construction;     - Easy transport whatever the destination, requiring no road infrastructure;     - A very rapid installation of the building on its final site. (See French Patent Publication No. 2132610).

p0004This method of construction, and transport by air turns thus particularly interesting for buildings to be erected in mountainous sites where access difficulties are added to the harsh climate.

p0005In the mode of construction and transportation considered the most delicate operation is the installation of the building in its place of final installation. In particular, given the weight of a building, it is not possible that the balloon separates the building he was carrying without the weight of the building is offset by a certain load serving as ballast in aerostat for his return trip. This important issue is not resolved in the document cited above.

p0006The present invention aims to solve the problem of installing a vessel by a balloon used for its transportation, in the case of a building resting on a foundation consisting of a vessel as described above, by playing a role additional to the vessel precisely at the time of placing the building on the tank.

p0007To this end, the invention relates essentially to a process for the airline prebuilt buildings, using a balloon on which hangs the building to transport, characterized in that the building is placed on the balloon at least one tank for the foundation of the building and installed or built on the ground, which was previously filled with water, and that at the time of installation of the building on the tank, an amount of water substantially corresponding the mass of the building is taken from the tank and loaded into or under the balloon to form the charge return the balloon.

p0008Thus, the mass of the building is "exchanged" against a corresponding amount of water at the time of the laying of the building, allowing the balloon then leave without problems to its place of departure. The proposed method is particularly economical since, in the case of buildings here considered, the tank should anyway be constructed, while the water filling the tank is either water fed through an existing pipeline network, either the rainwater collected on the site itself.

p0009Anyway, the invention will be better understood using the following description, and other features will become apparent with reference to the accompanying drawings illustrating, by way of example, one embodiment of out of this process for the airline prebuilt buildings:<ul><li>Figure 1 is a perspective view, very schematically, a building that can be installed by applying the object of the invention;</li><li>Figure 2 shows the building suspended beneath a balloon, during transport;</li><li>3 illustrates the installation of the building on its permanent site;</li><li>Figure 4 illustrates the removal of water by the balloon, after laying the building.</li></ul>

p0010As shown in Figure 1, the object of the invention relates to a building 1, such as a residential building, based on a cylindrical tank 2 with a vertical axis, built on a floor 3. The vessel 2 serves foundation of the building 1; it is further adapted to receive a heat transfer fluid can be heated by solar collectors 4, so that this vessel 2 also has functions of storage and retrieval of heat energy.

p0011The vessel 2 is built directly on the ground 3. As for Building 1, it is prebuilt in a factory located at a distance, and airlifted from the factory to its final site. air transport of building 1 is provided by a balloon 5, as shown in Figure 2.

p0012The balloon 5 includes a main body 6 with helium-filled reservoirs, a tail unit 7 and a cradle 8, and the not shown drive motors. To transport Building 1, the balloon 5 is further equipped with one or more cables 9 which is suspended a spreader 10, fitted with slings 11 which is hooked Building 1. A winch, not shown, makes it possible to lower or raise the spreader 10. the building 1 is suspended at a suitable distance from the nacelle 8, his transportation is provided by the movement of the balloon 5 of the arrow 12.

p0013When the balloon reaches 5 above the final site of the building 1, stabilizers means are activated to keep stationary. In addition, as shown in Figure 3, a guide wire and restraint 13 has dropped to the balloon 5, and anchored to a fixed point 14 located on the pan 2. According to an essential characteristic of the process, the tank 2 has been filled with a volume of water 15, whose mass corresponds substantially to that of the building 1.

p0014The balloon 5 held in stationary position, at a certain height above the tank 2, the winch is operated to lower the lifter 10, thus the vessel 1, as indicated by the arrow 16 of FIG 3. the building 1, guided by the aforementioned cable 13 is thus lowered and raised by suitably centered on the tank 2 position.

p0015Building 1 is then picked slings 11, the lifter 10 is raised, and the balloon descends down 5, coming up directly above the building 1, as shown in Figure 4, to take water 15 contained in the tank 2. for this purpose, a hose 17 is unwound from the balloon 5 and connected to the tank 2. the water 15 contained in the tank 2 is sucked into the duct 17, as indicated by an arrow 18 and this charged water is admitted in a ballast 19 of the balloon 5.

p0016Finally, the guide wire and retainer 13 is detached from the pan 2, so that the balloon 5 is released. the weight of the building 1 is now replaced on the balloon 5, the equivalent weight of water 15 collected in the tank 2 and filling the ballast 19. The balloon 5 may well return without difficulty to its starting point.

p0017Building 1 can then be completed, including realization of connections between the building 1 and the tank 2.

p0018Such buildings transport method allows the erection of buildings on inaccessible by land or sea transportation websites: mountain sites, wetlands, small islands ... The implementation of the process can also be justified economically for industrialized construction of buildings in arbitrary sites, especially in the case of buildings of reconstruction to be performed in a very short time, for example as a result of natural catastophes.

p0019Of course, the same process is applicable regardless of the shapes and dimensions of the vessel 1 and vessel 2. In the case therefore of large dimensions building high weight, the method is obviously applicable to parts of prebuilt buildings, are juxtaposed together to form a complete building. Finally, this process naturally applies to buildings of any destination, be it ordinary dwellings or special purpose buildings, such as high mountain refuges.

p0020It will therefore be understood that the invention is not limited to the implementation mode of the method for air transport prebuilt buildings has been described above, for example; it embraces, on the contrary, all variants follow the same principle, whatever, such as the particular applications.