Appeal No. 97-1114 Page 14
Application No. 08/222,643
suggested by Kappus would have been located above a plurality of
existing roadways since air routes over existing roadways is well
known.
With regard to claim 15, it is our opinion that it would
have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time
of the appellant's invention to have further extended the
plurality of routes suggested by Kappus to a rural area in view
of Kappus' teaching that the routes can extend 200-400 miles and
the well known provision of having small airports in rural areas.
Claims 8 through 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
being unpatentable over Kappus as applied to claim 6 above, and
further in view of Gilbert.
Gilbert pertains to an air surface rapid transit vehicle in
which a passenger- or cargo-carrying pod is detachably connected
to a helicopter or other VTOL aircraft for high-speed transport
between metropolitan and suburban depots, and is then transferred
to and locked onto a self-propelled power unit of one type or
another, for transport on the ground. Gilbert's specification,
at column 1, line 41 through column 2, line 10, contains the
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