Helicopter rotor system
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsFrancis H. McArdle, Earl Schneider
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A rotor hub system for a helicopter in which the rotor hub and pitch housing are fabricated predominately of composite material, the flap hinge, pitch hinge and lead-lag hinge contain elastomeric bearings and one step blade folding in either the forward or aft direction using the same drive system. The rotor hub includes closed loop straps which define generally opposed lugs of the flap hinge, and the pitch housing includes a pair of closed loop straps which define the lugs of the lead-lag hinge and a lug of the flap hinge. The use of composite materials as the predominant material of the rotor hub and the pitch housing results in a highly load redundant structure permitting a reduction in size and number of parts, a reduction in drag, and an increase in reliability and safety.
Claims39
A rotor system for a helicopter, comprising:
- a rotor hub including a plurality of lug pairs partly defined by a plurality of composite closed loop straps, each lug pair partly defining a flap hinge;
- a plurality of rotor blades, equal in number to the pairs of lugs;
- and
- a plurality of rotor blade attachment means, one for each rotor blade, for attaching a respective rotor blade to the rotor hub at a respective pair of lugs, each rotor blade attachment means further defining with an associated lug pair the flap hinge partly defined by said lug pair.
A rotor system for a helicopter, comprising:
- a rotor hub including a plurality of composite core structures assembled together and an equal plurality of composite closed loop straps, each attached to a respective core structure, said plurality of composite core structures and their associated composite closed loop straps defining a plurality of lug pairs each lug part partly defining a flap hinge;
- a plurality of rotor blades, equal in number to the pairs of lugs;
- and
- a plurality of pitch housing assemblies, one for each rotor blade, each pitch housing assembly defining part of a lead-lag hinge to which a rotor blade is attached, and part of the flap hinge of an associated lug pair for attachment to the rotor hub.
A rotor hub for the rotor system of a helicopter, comprising:
- a plurality of composite core structures assembled together;
- and
- an equal plurality of composite closed loop straps, each attached to a respective one of the composite core structures, the composite core structures and associated composite closed loop straps forming pairs of spaced apart lugs, with each pair of spaced apart lugs partly defining a flap hinge.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.