Patent ID: 9551423
Date: 2017-01-24
CPC Classifications: A62C,B23P,F16K,Y10T

Claim:
1. A fire fighting apparatus comprising: a fire retardant; an aircraft for on-the-go delivery of the fire retardant; a storage tank for holding the fire retardant; a butterfly valve having a disk secured to a bottom of said storage tank with said butterfly valve openable to direct the fire retardant from the storage tank on to a target area, said butterfly valve containing a compound shaft with the compound shaft interfitted to a disk openable and closeable in response to an electrical signal, wherein said disk of the butterfly valve is nylon and the compound shaft comprises a first half shaft and a second half shaft joined in an end to end condition by a set of fasteners extending through the disk and into each of the half shafts; and an annular inflatable seal to seal the edges of the butterfly valve and to prevent leakage therepast when the butterfly valve is in a closed condition; and a disk position sensor that prevents the annular inflatable seal from being accidentally inflated when the disk is in an open condition thereby preventing damage to the annular inflatable seal and the disk.