Patent ID: 8266866

Claim:
A method for assembling an inflatable shell of an inflatable structure into a folded, uninflated configuration, comprising the steps of: providing a core for support of the inflatable structure; providing a plurality of shell sections to be integrated together, each shell section comprising: a first gore section comprising at least one first gore panel, the at least one first gore panel having a side edge with a curvature region along a portion of the perimeter of the at least one first gore panel and a set of straight line fold lines for folding the at least one first gore panel during assembly of the inflatable shell; and a second gore section comprising at least one second gore panel, the at least one second gore panel having a side edge with a second curvature region along a portion of the perimeter of the at least one second gore panel for attaching to the side edge of the first gore panel, the second curvature region of the at least one second gore panel and the first curvature region of the at least one first gore panel being correspondingly configured to one another so as to form a second set of fold lines for the shell section once the first and second gore panels are attached at the side edges thereto such that the at least one second gore panel remains unfolded during the uninflated configuration of the inflatable shell; assembling the plurality of shell sections of the inflatable shell by the act of manipulating each shell section into a folded configuration; and integrating the plurality of assembled shell sections about the core by anchoring each assembled shell section to the core and by attaching each assembled shell section to an adjacent assembled shell section so as to form a folded, uninflated inflatable shell about the core.