Appeal 2007-2888
Application 11/017,602
Findings of Fact
The Sloan Patent
1. “The construction universally used for commercial aircraft is that of a
skeleton framework comprising a plurality of spaced parallel transverse
frames connected by longitudinally extended strings” (Sloan, at col. 1, ll. 21-
24 (in “Background of the Invention”)). “Each cell between each pair of
immediately adjacent frames and immediately adjacent strings is provided
with its own insulating element” (Sloan, at col. 1, ll. 26-29).
2. A vapor barrier is provided on the warm side, “usually . . . by enclosing
each [insulating] element completely in a bag of a thin flexible moisture
impervious plastic material” (Sloan, at col. 1, ll. 31-33).
3. Sloan describes an improved acoustic and thermal insulation system for
the passenger cabin of an aircraft that employs thermal insulating elements,
each of which comprises “a body of thermally insulating material enclosed
in a bag of moisture impervious material” (Sloan, at col. 3, ll. 49-51; see also
Abstract). The element is labeled “18” in Fig. 2 and “78” in Fig. 8 of Sloan.
4. “A typical aircraft fuselage structure 10, as illustrated by FIGS. 1-3,
comprises a plurality of longitudinally spaced circular frames 12 connected
together a plurality of circumferentially spaced longitudinally extending
stringers 14, the frames and stringers cooperating to form a plurality of
approximately rectangular shaped cells 16, each of which received one or
more sound, vibration and thermal insulating elements 18” (Sloan, at col. 5,
ll. 35-47; Answer 3). The elements are also referred to as “bags.”
5. Each bag has at “a lowermost point at which moisture condensed therein
will accumulate under gravity[,] an aperture or apertures connecting the bag
interior to its exterior” through which condensed liquid which accumulates
5
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