Deployable rotor
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
InventorJustin J. Barzda
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A deployable stowed rotor having a rotor hub to which a pair of telescoping otor blades are connected is foldable into a package suitable for stowage prior to use. When the rotor is deployed, for example, as a lifting device for an ejection seat, positive preconing of the blades is provided by a spreading link arrangement connected to a drogue chute. Further coning during rotor spin-up is synchronized by intermeshed gears provided at respective one ends of the blades attached to the hub by teeter link hinges. Rotor speed is automatically regulated by a governing spring formed in conjunction with a helical spline arrangement between each of the blades and the hub and which varies the pitch of the spinning blades according to rotational velocity.
Claims7
A preconing device for a deployable rotor having a pair of parallelly folded rotor blades mounted on a rotor hub for movement between stowed and flight positions, comprising, in combination:
- drag means for producing a force opposite to the direction of flight;
- a lanyard having a shank connected to said drag means for moving in the direction of said force, said lanyard forming a fork having a pair of parallelly spaced prongs connected together at respective one ends to form said shank and having a pair of concentric holes formed in each of the respective other ends;
- a slide having a shank formed to be connected to the rotor hub for movement therewith, said slide forming a fork having a pair of parallelly spaced prongs formed to slidably register therebetween with said lanyard prongs, said slide prongs having a pair of identically aligned slots formed along the respective lengths thereof and connected together at respective one ends to form said shank;
- guide means having an elongated member passing through the holes in said lanyard and simultaneously engaging the slots of said slide for limiting the motion of said lanyard within said slide to linear displacement along said slots and for slidably fixing said lanyard prongs within said slide prongs;
- and
- spreading means including a pair of links releasably connected at respective one ends to corresponding ones of the rotor blades and rotatably connected at the respective other ends to said guide means elongated member intermediate said lanyard prongs for urging said one ends of said links along said slots upon application of said drag means force and for concomittantly spreading said other ends of said links to precone the folded rotor blades.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.