Patent ID: 7384015

Claim:
An aircraft nose comprising: a protection shield plate adapted for protection from frontal impact, wherein the protection shield plate is positioned intermediate an air tightly sealed front frame of a cabin zone of an aircraft and detection devices located in a radome zone of the aircraft located at a front of the aircraft, such that the front frame of the cabin zone is protected by the shield plate and the radome zone remains unprotected by the shield plate, wherein the shield plate comprises a single, rigid structure, and wherein the shield plate is operably coupled to the front frame by a floating mount, wherein one of the shield plate and the front frame comprises a set of fingers, and the other of the shield plate and the front frame comprises a set of receptacles adapted to correspondingly engage the set of fingers, and wherein the nose further comprises a set of elastic fasteners to operably couple the shield plate to the front frame such that the shield plate is adapted to slide as a whole longitudinally on an axis substantially parallel to the fingers and substantially perpendicular to a plane of the shield plate.