A system for controlling airflow from a galley compartment to a plenum chamber is disclosed. The system includes an actuating assembly. The actuating assembly includes a cylinder, a heat-expanding material disposed in the cylinder, and a piston disposed in the cylinder, wherein the heat-expanding material is configured to actuate the piston when the heat-expanding material is heated. The system includes a valve assembly. The valve assembly may include a louver assembly coupled to the actuating assembly. The louver assembly includes a louver frame, one or more louver blades and bracket and a connecting rod that couples the actuating assembly to the valve assembly. The valve assembly may also include a poppet valve. The poppet valve includes a poppet body element, a poppet stem coupled to the actuating assembly that is inserted into a channel within the poppet body element, and a poppet head coupled to the poppet stem.

Methods, systems, and apparatuses for temporarily increasing, on demand, the relative humidity of an area located proximate to a user in environments having lower than ambient relative humidity are provided by integrating a personal humidification circuit into a water delivery circuit to provide a diverted flow of water, and provide a flow of water vapor to a user, and returning the relative humidity-enhanced environment to a predetermined relative humidity by purging the environment.

The germ protection system for vehicles, hospitals, restaurants, schools, nursing homes, lifts and the like uses: a) A system that prevents germs: bacteria, protozoa, viruses or parasites from being breathed in vehicles or closed premises, lifts or the like, blowing or sucking air, b) An independent air installation that applies air conditioning, fed with turbofan engines, to the individual air blowing nozzles in the ceiling or backrest of the compartments of each passenger, c) An independent air installation using compressors that extracts and compresses the outside air, and apply it to the individual air blowing nozzles in the ceiling or backrest of the compartments of each passenger, d) A system that uses an individual installation to replace oxygen system in case of emergency, e) A system that is valid simultaneously for protection against germs and for breathing in case of emergency. The air is filtered, disinfected, its pressure, temperature and humidity regulated, and through some ducts it is applied to the masks, helmets, hoods, their ducts or nasal cannulas. f), A system that is coupled to the individual air supply nozzle of the passengers, using for this purpose at the end of the duct of the mask, face mask screen, diving suit or helmet.

Example implementations for maintaining airflow into a flight deck of an aircraft are described herein. An example method may involve detecting, at a computing system and using a flow sensor, a decrease in a level of airflow entering into the flight deck such that the level of airflow is below a threshold level. The aircraft may include air sources configured to direct airflow towards occupancy areas (e.g., the cabin and flight deck) of the aircraft. The method may further involve adjusting a control valve to cause an increase in the level of airflow entering into the flight deck based on detecting the decrease in level of airflow entering into the flight deck. The control valve may be configured to enable and disable airflow from entering into the flight deck.

Commercial supersonic aircraft and associated systems and methods. A representative commercial supersonic aircraft includes a fuselage configured to carry a crew and between 20 and 60 passengers, a delta wing mounted to the fuselage, and a propulsion system carried by at least one of the wing and the fuselage, the propulsion system including a plurality of engines, at least one variable-geometry inlet, and at least one variable-geometry nozzle.

A method and system for controlling fresh air flow into a controlled environment are disclosed herein. The method comprises: measuring, using a sensor, a predetermined property in the controlled environment; estimating, by a controller, a number of people inside the controlled environment based on the measured property, and setting, by the controller, a rate of fresh air flow to the controlled environment based at least in part on the estimated number of people inside the controlled environment.

An aircraft includes a fuselage defining a cabin region and a crown region. The aircraft also includes a duct disposed within the fuselage. The duct is coupled to one or more drying air vents disposed in the crown region and coupled to one or more cabin vents disposed with the cabin region. The one or more drying air vents are configured to output drying air, received via the duct, into the crown region, and the one or more cabin vents are configured to output conditioned air, received via the duct, into the cabin region. The aircraft further includes one or more valves coupled to the duct and configured to, in a first valve position, route airflow within the duct to the one or more drying air vents and configured to, in a second valve position, route the airflow within the duct to the one or more cabin vents.

An air conditioning system that is designed to be retroactively added to, and removed from, an existing aircraft, vehicle, boat or similar confined space. The air conditioning system includes a cooler module that is carried into a first compartment to circulate and cool the air. The cooler module contains a condenser, an evaporator and a compressor. A heat exchanger module is mounted into a vented second compartment. The heat exchanger is capable of exchanging heat with the ambient air. The heat exchanger module is connected to the cooler module with tubes that contain a heat exchanger fluid. In order for the tubes to pass through a compartment barrier, fluid couplings are mounted through the barrier. The tubes connect to the fluid couplings on either side of the barrier. A control unit is provided within the pressurized cabin and/or cockpit for controlling the operations of the cooler module.

An air handling system for distributing airflow in a vehicle is disclosed and includes a passenger compartment configured to contain one or more occupants, a cargo compartment, and a flow regulating valve configured to actuate into a commanded position to apportion airflow between the passenger and cargo compartments. The air handling system also includes one or more processors in electronic communication with the flow regulating valve and a memory coupled to the one or more processors. The memory stores data comprising a database and program code that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the air handling system to receive one or more signals indicating a total available airflow rate available to the vehicle and a system configuration. The one or more processors instruct the flow regulating valve to actuate into a commanded position. The commanded position is calculated based on at least a target cargo airflow rate.

An air distribution panel for aircraft comprises a primary air inlet port, a housing fluidly coupled to the primary air inlet port, and an environmental sensor. The primary air inlet port is configured to be fluidly coupled to and receive primary air from an air distribution plenum. The housing comprises an air outlet chamber and a secondary air inlet chamber. The primary air is exhausted into an aircraft compartment via the air outlet chamber. Secondary air is drawn from the aircraft compartment via the secondary air inlet chamber. Exhausting of the primary air through the air outlet chamber causes the secondary air to be passively drawn into the secondary air inlet chamber. The environmental sensor is positioned within the secondary air inlet chamber and along an airflow path of the secondary air. The secondary air is exhausted via the air outlet chamber back into the aircraft compartment after the secondary air passes the temperature sensor.