Toy vehicle having parachute attached thereto

A toy vehicle consisting of a vehicle body and a plurality of wheels rotatably mounted thereon includes means for receiving and containing a simulated parachute therein and ejection means for selectively ejecting the parachute in response to a predetermined sequence of positions attained by the vehicle body during movement along its path of travel.

The present invention relates to toy vehicles and, more particularly, to a 
toy vehicle in which a simulated parachute is ejected from the vehicle to 
simulate "braking" of the vehicle after the vehicle has moved through a 
predetermined sequence of positions. 
High powered racing cars such as drag strip vehicles and so-called "Formula 
1" racing cars are often provided with parachutes that are ejected by the 
operator from the vehicle in order to aid in slowing the vehicle to a stop 
after the completion of the race or run. Drag strip racers most commonly 
use such parachute assisted braking systems because of the relatively high 
speeds they attain within a short distance. These vehicles also often 
attain a "wheelie" configuration, i.e. they rise on and move forward 
solely on their rear wheels for a small period of time, because of their 
rapid acceleration. 
IN VIEW OF THE POPULARITY OF AUTOMOBILE RACING AND DRAG STRIP RACING IN 
TICULAR, A VARIETY OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF TOY VEHICLES HAVE BEEN 
PROPOSED IN THE PAST TO SIMULATE ACTUAL RACING AND DRAG STRIP VEHICLES. 
Such vehicles include various different features which attempt to 
realistically simulate the movement and actions of such racing vehicles. 
It is an object of the present invention to provide a toy vehicle that 
includes a simulated parachute braking system to closely simulate the 
actions of a drag strip vehicle. 
Another object of the present invention is to provide a toy vehicle having 
a simulated parachute braking system which will operate upon the movement 
of the toy vehicle through a predetermined sequence of positions. 
A further object of the present invention is to provide a toy vehicle with 
a simulated parachute braking system which will operate to simulate 
braking of the vehicle after the vehicle has first moved through a 
"wheelie" position and returned to a flat out running position. 
A further object of the present invention is to provide a toy vehicle which 
simulates a racing car that is relatively inexpensive in manufacture and 
durable in use. 
Another object of the present invention is to provide a toy vehicle which 
includes a simulated parachute braking system and is power driven to 
obtain a "wheelie" position. 
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention a toy vehicle is 
provided which consists of a vehicle body having a plurality of wheels 
rotatably mounted thereon and includes a rearwardly opening cavity in 
which a simulated parachute is stored. The parachute is selectively 
ejected from the body by an ejection mechanism which includes a piston 
movably mounted in the cavity and operatively connected to the shroud 
lines of the parachute. The piston is adapted to move between an innermost 
position within the cavity and an outermost position adjacent the outer 
edge of the cavity, with the movement of the piston from the inner to 
outermost positions causing the parachute to be ejected from the cavity. A 
spring is operatively engaged with the piston to bias the piston from its 
innermost to its outermost position and provide the ejection force. 
A latching arrangement is provided to hold the piston rod in its innermost 
position against the bias of the spring until the toy vehicle has moved 
through a predetermined sequence of positions. This latching mechanism 
includes a piston rod for the piston that extends inwardly of the vehicle 
from the cavity. An extension of the piston rod, and a portion of the 
vehicle, include cooperating engaging means which hold the piston in its 
innermost position against the bias of the spring. Means are provided for 
disengaging the cooperating engaging means when the vehicle is in a flat 
out running position so as to allow the piston to move under the influence 
of the spring. However, in addition to these cooperating means, a separate 
latch mechanism is provided to normally hold the piston in its innermost 
position against the bias of the spring in the flat running position of 
the vehicle. This latch mechanism includes means for releasing the latch 
when the toy vehicle enters a "wheelie" position. As a result the piston 
is normally held in its innermost position in all positions of the toy 
vehicle until the vehicle attains a "wheelie" position whereby the 
latching mechanism is released so that when the vehicle returns to its 
flat out running position the cooperating means will be disengaged to 
allow the piston to move under the influence of the spring and thereby 
eject the parachute from the vehicle cavity. 
In addition, the vehicle is preferably provided with a power drive system, 
such as for example a flywheel motor, so that it will move along its path 
of travel and obtain a "wheelie" position so that sequencing of the 
release of the piston can be effected.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, and initially to FIG. 1 thereof, a 
toy vehicle 10 constructed in accordance with the present invention 
includes a vehicle body 12 formed of a molded plastic material and a 
plurality of ground engageable front and rear wheels 14, 16, rotatably 
mounted thereon. The vehicle body contains a flywheel motor including a 
centrally located ground engageable drive wheel 18 for propelling the toy 
vehicle along its path of travel. The flywheel motor is energized to 
relatively high speeds of rotation, for driving the ground engageable 
wheel 18, by an energizer structure 20, which may be identical to the 
energizer structure described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 438,821, 
filed Feb. 1, 1974, commonly assigned herewith, and now U.S. Pat. No. 
3,886,682. The flywheel motor housing 56 has support pins 22 formed 
therein which are supported in the notches 24 formed in energizer 20 so 
that during operation of the energizer drive wheel 18 of the flywheel 
motor is held in an elevated position and does not interfere with rotation 
of the wheel or energization of the flywheel motor. Once drive wheel 18 is 
rotating at the desired speed, the operator stops rotation of the 
energizer crank and the vehicle is automatically expelled from the 
energizer with drive wheel 18 dropping down onto the ramp 26 of the 
energizer to propel the vehicle forwardly. Since the vehicle is relatively 
light, by properly energizing the flywheel motor to a sufficiently high 
speed of rotation the vehicle will come off the energizer and move into a 
"wheelie" position wherein the front wheels 14 of the vehicle rise off of 
the surface 28 along which the vehicle travels. 
In accordance with the present invention toy vehicle 10 includes a 
simulated parachute braking system 30 contained within the rear end 32 of 
the toy vehicle. This braking system includes a simulated parachute 34 
which may be formed of paper or the like connected by flexible shroud 
lines 36 to a portion of the toy vehicle, as described hereinafter. The 
braking system is constructed such that parachute 34 is ejected from the 
toy vehicle only after the vehicle has moved through a "wheelie" position, 
as illustrated in FIG. 1, and returned to a horizontal flat out running 
position. This simulates the actions of a typical drag strip type racing 
vehicle which includes a parachute braking system to bring the vehicle to 
a halt. 
Simulated parachute braking system 30 includes a rearwardly opening cavity 
37 formed in the body 12 of the toy vehicle. This cavity contains a piston 
or ejection door 48 which includes a hook element 40 to which shroud lines 
36 of parachute 34 are secured. 
A hollow sleeve 42 is formed behind cavity 36 on one side of the center 
line of the vehicle (see FIG. 5). This sleeve slidably contains a piston 
or latch rod 44 which is formed integrally with piston 38. The piston rod 
has a section 46 of reduced diameter surrounded by a coiled spring 48 
engaged at its opposed ends with one end 50 of the sleeve and abutment 
shoulders 52 formed on piston rod 44. Thus the spring normally biases 
piston 38 outwardly of the cavity 36. As seen in FIGS. 2 and 5, sleeve 42 
and piston rod 46 are offset from the center line the vehicle and extend 
along the side of the flywheel motor housing 56 contained in the rear of 
the vehicle. 
The piston or ejection door 38 is normally held in its innermost position, 
shown in FIG. 2, against the bias of spring 46 by a latch mechanism 60 
which comprises an elongated bar 62 pivotally mounted in the rear of the 
toy vehicle's body, transversely of the longitudinal axis thereof. Bar 62 
includes an abutment surface 64 which extends through an aperture 66 in 
the bottom wall of the cavity 38 so as to block outward movement of piston 
38. The bar 62 also includes a lever extension 68. 
When playing with the toy vehicle, the operator depresses piston 38 against 
spring 46 and pivots bar 62, by properly operating arm 68, so that the 
abutment portion 64 is placed in front of piston 38 in order to block its 
movement. The pivotally mounted bar 62 remains in this position because of 
the tight engagement between piston 38 and abutment surface 64 under the 
influence of spring 48. This engagement holds bar 62 in this position and 
insures that piston 38 is not inadvertently released. By this arrangement, 
as seen in FIG. 3, when the toy vehicle enters its "wheelie" position arm 
68 will engage running surface 28 and be pivoted in a counterclockwise 
direction, to move abutment surface 64 away from piston 38. This would 
free piston 38 for outward movement to eject parachute 34 from cavity 37. 
However, an additional latching arrangement 70 is provided in order to 
prevent ejection of the parachute from the vehicle in the "wheelie" 
position and to allow such ejection to occur only after the toy vehicle 
has returned to its flat out running position, as illustrated at the 
extreme left in FIG. 1. 
This additional latching mechanism includes a resilient arm 71 rigidly 
secured to the end 72 of the piston rod 44 as an extension thereof in any 
convenient manner. As illustrated in the drawing, arm 71 has a pair of 
openings 74, 76, formed therein and the end 72 of the piston rod is hook 
shaped, and engaged in those openings. 
Flexible arm 71 extends along the interior of vehicle housing 12 to a free 
end 78 formed as a contact surface or element 79 which passes through an 
opening 80 in the base of the vehicle to a position wherein it can engage 
the running surface 28 along which the vehicle moves, when the vehicle is 
moving in its flat out running position. The end 78 of arm 71 also 
includes an integral recess 82 formed therein which defines a rearwardly 
facing abutment surface or wall 84. The bottom wall 86 of the toy vehicle 
housing includes an abutment or stop member 88 which is adapted to be 
received in recess 82 and engaged with wall 84. 
In the normal flat out running position of the toy vehicle, as illustrated 
in FIG. 2, contact element 79 rides on surface 28 along which the vehicle 
travels and causes arm 71 to flex upwardly, so that wall 84 and abutment 
surface 88 are out of engagement with each other. This would allow piston 
38 to move outwardly under the influence of spring 48, but such movement 
is stopped by abutment surface 64 as described above. 
When the toy vehicle enters its "wheelie" position, as illustrated in FIG. 
3, contact element 79 is located out of contact with running surface 28, 
so that it is in its normal straight and unflexed position, whereby stop 
member 88 is received in recess 82 and engaged with wall 84. The 
engagement of these cooperating engaging means, i.e. stop member 88 and 
the abutment wall 84, prevents piston 38 from moving outwardly in cavity 
37 under the influence of spring 48, even though abutment member 64 of bar 
62 has been removed from engagement with piston 38 by the contact of arm 
68 with surface 28, as described above. Thus piston 38 is held against 
outward movement while the vehicle remains in its "wheelie" position. 
Finally, as the flywheel motor slows down, the vehicle will return from its 
"wheelie" position to its flat out running position. When that occurs 
contact element 79 re-engages running surface 28 and causes arm 71 to flex 
upwardly, into the position illustrated in FIG. 2, wherein cooperating 
means 84, 88 are disengaged. In that position, since movement of piston 38 
is no longer blocked by abutment member 64 of latch mechanism 60, spring 
48 pushes or urges piston 38 outwardly in cavity 37. This outward movement 
stops when the end 90 of arm 11 engages the end 92 of sleeve 42. However 
the outward movement of the piston ejects the parachute from cavity 37. 
The parachute will billow and fill with air to simulate the action of a 
parachute on a conventional drag strip vehicle, since vehicle 10 continues 
to move forwardly at a relatively rapid speed under the drive of the 
flywheel motor. 
As seen in FIGS. 2 and 3, the rear end portion of the toy vehicle is 
inclined upwardly so that its bottom wall 94 forms a substantial angle 
with running surface 28. By locating bar 62 and arm 68 at the upper 
rearward end of the toy vehicle, the vehicle must obtain a substantial 
"wheelie" position before latch bar 62 is released. Thus if the operator 
does not sufficiently energize the flywheel motor so that the vehicle 
obtains the full "wheelie" position illustrated in FIG. 3, arm 68 will not 
engage the running surface and the parachute will not eject. This 
simulates the operation of an actual racing vehicle which does not require 
the use of its parachute braking system unless a minimum high speed is 
attained. 
To further simulate the appearance of a drag strip vehicle, toy vehicle 10 
of the present invention includes an extensible nose or front edge portion 
100. This includes a front end 102 on which front wheels 14 are rotatably 
mounted. Nose portion 100 includes an integral rearwardly extending plate 
element 104 which rests on the lower wall 80 at the front of the vehicle. 
This plate includes a pair of side wall elements 106 (FIG. 6) having an 
elongated slot 108 formed therebetween for receiving a mounting stud 110. 
Stud or boss 110 is used to secure the seat 112 of the vehicle to its 
bottom wall 86. Thus plate 104 is trapped between bottom wall 86 of the 
vehicle and the lower surface of seat 112 and can slide longitudinally 
with respect thereto in a frictional engagement. Accordingly, the operator 
can pull the front end or nose 100 of the vehicle outwardly in order to 
extend the length of the vehicle. 
By extending the front end of the vehicle its center of gravity is changed 
so that the "wheelie" runs obtained by the vehicle will be shorter with 
the nose extended; while with the nose retracted, the "wheelie" runs will 
be longer. 
Accordingly, it will be seen that the toy vehicle 10 of the present 
invention provides a relatively simply constructed vehicle arrangement 
that produces a realistic simulation of the braking of a drag strip type 
vehicle by a parachute braking system. The realism of the toy vehicle is 
enhanced by the latching mechanisms utilized therein to control the 
ejection of the parachute in accordance with a predetermined sequence of 
vehicle movements. Moreover, the extensible front of the vehicle allows 
the operator to vary the length of the "wheelie" movements which the 
vehicle will perform. 
Although an illustrative embodiment of the present invention has been 
described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be 
understood that the invention is not limited to that precise embodiment 
thereof, but that various changes and modifications may be effected 
therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope or 
spirit of this invention.