Patent ID: 7946105

Claim:
A thrust reverser, comprising: at least one transcowl movable between a stowed position and a deployed position; and a manual drive unit enabling manual actuation of the transcowl during thrust reverser maintenance, the manual drive unit including a bi-directional locking ring assembly for locking the transcowl in a desired position, the bi-directional locking ring assembly comprising: a housing; a gear having a plurality of teeth and coupled to said housing to rotate in opposite directions about a rotational axis; a pin coupled to said housing and having an apex configured to travel along a line that does not pass through the rotational axis of said gear, said pin configured to translate between (1) a disengaged position wherein said gear is free to rotate, and (2) an engaged position wherein said apex resides between two of said plurality of teeth to prevent rotation of said gear in both rotational directions; and a pin actuator coupled to said housing and configured to engage said pin to selectively lock said pin in the engaged position; wherein the gear rotates in a first rotational direction when the manual drive unit is utilized to move the transcowl from the deployed position toward the stowed position, and wherein the pin of the bi-directional locking ring assembly biases the gear in the first rotational direction when the apex of the pin contacts the tip portion of the one of the plurality of teeth to ensure that the transcowl is fully returned to the stowed position by the manual drive unit after thrust reverser maintenance.