Teetering tail rotor yoke
AssigneeBell Helicopter Textron Inc.
InventorsHassan A. Mughal, Jared Addison Hallett, Andrew Paul Haldeman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In one embodiment, a rotorcraft can include a teetering tail rotor assembly. The teetering tail rotor assembly can include one or more multi-bearing yokes. Each yoke can include three or more spherical bearings evenly spaced apart from each other. The teetering tail rotor assembly can include a tail rotor blade affixed to each yoke arm through the three or more spherical bearings. The physical dimensions of the three-bearing yoke can be 10% smaller than a two bearing yoke that can support an equivalent load. For example, the length of each three bearing yoke can be 28 inches, the thickness can be 0.85 inches, and the width can be 3.250 inches.
Claims20
A tail rotor assembly comprising:
- a yoke arm;
- a rotor blade;
- and
- at least three spherical bearings, each of the three spherical bearings carried by the yoke arm and configured to pivotally secure the rotor blade to the yoke arm and to allow feathering movement of the rotor blade relative to the yoke arm during flight.
A rotorcraft comprising:
- a tail rotor assembly, the tail rotor assembly comprising:
- a yoke arm;
- a rotor blade;
- and
- at least three spherical bearings, each of the three spherical bearings carried by the yoke arm and configured to pivotally secure the rotor blade to the yoke arm and to allow feathering movement of the rotor blade relative to the yoke arm during flight.
A tail rotor yoke for a rotorcraft with a teetering tail rotor, the tail rotor yoke comprising:
- an elliptically shaped center portion that can receive a tail rotor gearbox;
- a first yoke arm extending from the center portion, the first yoke arm comprising at least three spherical bearing receiving sections;
- and
- a second yoke arm extending from the center portion, the first yoke arm comprising at least three spherical bearing receiving sections.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.