Patent ID: 7866604

Claim:
An aircraft including: an air conditioning system feeding conditioned air to at least one zone of said aircraft via distribution means, a zone in which the conditioned air can escape outside said aircraft through an exhaust duct; means able to recover, when said aircraft is flying at altitude, the energy of the release of said conditioned air when the latter passes from said conditioned zone to outside the aircraft; a switching valve, the sole inlet of which is positioned in said conditioned zone and of which a first and a second outlets are respectively linked to said exhaust duct and to said energy recovery means, said switching valve being: in its position linking its inlet to said energy recovery means when said aircraft is in cruising flight phase or in a flight phase close to cruising, and in its position linking its inlet to said exhaust duct, in all other possible situations of said aircraft, an auxiliary air conditioning unit partly fed with energy by said energy recovery means and able to take fresh air from outside said aircraft and generate conditioned air from said fresh air; and switching means making it possible to feed said distribution means: with conditioned air originating from said auxiliary conditioning unit, when said aircraft is in cruising phase or in a flight phase close to cruising, and with conditioned air originating from said air conditioning system in all other possible situations of said aircraft.