Patent ID: 8156624

Claim:
Apparatus for stringing aerial cables through a tower structure using aircraft, comprising in combination: an elongated tubular threading member having a longitudinal axis, a forward end and a rearward end, and having a wall through which a plurality of spaced-apart, longitudinal slots are formed, wherein a selected number of the plurality of longitudinal slots are not collinear with the remaining longitudinal slots, and wherein each longitudinal slot of said plurality of longitudinal slots has an opposing longitudinal slot through the wall of said threading member having similar dimensions thereto; a plurality of projections, each of said projections having a rearward end, a pivoted end, each of said projections being pivotably mounted in the vicinity of the pivoted end thereof within said threading member such that the rearward end of each of said projections can extend through either one of the longitudinal slots, thereby being capable of freely moving from an approximately perpendicular position relative to the axis on either side of said threading member to a position along the axis thereof; means for securing a sock line to the rearward end of said threading member; a block disposed on said tower structure having at least one pulley and a frame member adapted to receive and releasably hold said threading member on said pulley when engaged by at least one of said projections; and means for releasably attaching an aircraft haul line to said threading member.