Hybrid pitch bearing for rigid rotor
AssigneeLockheed Martin Corporation
InventorsKevin A. Laitenberger, Claude George Matalanis, Yair Preiss, Joseph Thomas Palombo, Andrew Hunt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A rotor assembly for a rotary wing aircraft includes a rotor hub, a rotor blade coupling coupled to the rotor hub, a hub extender coupled to the rotor hub, and a first bearing assembly. The first bearing assembly includes a clevis coupled to the hub extender and including two arms, each arm including a clevis opening, two cylindrical bearings, each cylindrical bearing extending through one of the clevis openings, a spherical bearing positioned between the two arms and coupled to the rotor blade coupling, and a first pin extending through the two cylindrical bearings and the spherical bearing.
Claims10
A bearing assembly comprising:
- a clevis comprising two arms;
- a cylindrical bearing positioned in an opening of each arm, each cylindrical bearing comprising a cylindrical inner race and a cylindrical outer race;
- a spherical bearing configured to be coupled to an opening in a plate, the spherical bearing comprising a spherical inner race and a spherical outer race;
- and
- a pin extending through the spherical bearing and the cylindrical bearings and coupled to a nut,
- wherein a head of the pin and the nut cause the cylindrical inner races to contact the spherical inner race to maintain a lateral position of the pin relative to the spherical bearing.
A rotor assembly for a rotary wing aircraft, the rotor assembly comprising:
- a rotor hub;
- a flex beam coupled to the rotor hub;
- a blade coupling positioned around the flex beam;
- and
- a first bearing assembly comprising:
- a fixed portion coupled to the flex beam and including two cylindrical bearings;
- a pitch control portion extending through an opening in the fixed portion and coupled to the blade coupling, the pitch control portion including a spherical bearing;
- and
- a bearing shaft extending through the spherical bearings and the two cylindrical bearings and coupling the fixed portion to the pitch control portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.