Coupled aircraft rotor system

A control system for an aircraft having a plurality of rotor blades coupled to a yoke, the control system comprising:

• a plurality of pilot input controls for generating a plurality of control signals;
• a main swashplate for controlling a pitch of each rotor blade;
• a feedback swashplate operably associated with the rotor blades for generating feedback signals corresponding to flapping movements of the rotor blades;
• and
• a signal mixer for combining the control signals and the feedback signals into a combined signal;
• wherein the combined signal is transferred from the signal mixer to the rotor blades through the main swashplate, thereby compensating for the flapping movement of the rotor blades.

A control system for a rotary wing aircraft having a fuselage, a rotor assembly including a mast, a yoke coupled to the mast, a plurality of rotor blades coupled to the yoke, each rotor blade having a pitch horn, and a drive means carried by the fuselage for actuating the rotor assembly, the control system comprising:

• a plurality of pilot controls for generating a plurality of pilot control inputs;
• a means for modifying the pilot control inputs to compensate for flapping movements of the rotor blades, so as to generate a plurality of main swashplate inputs;
• and
• a main swashplate adapted to be coupled to the pitch horns for receiving the main swashplate inputs and correspondingly altering the pitch of the rotor blades.

A rotary winged aircraft comprising:

• a craft body;
• a plurality of rotor blades in a rotor disk position substantially parallel to the craft body with direction of flight begin controlled by a rotor thrust vector;
• a hub coupling through a flexible joint the plurality of rotor blades to the tilting mast in a manner which transfers torque and thrust while allowing rotor thrust vector tilting;
• a main swashplate for tilting in response to operator input to control the direction of the rotor thrust vector;
• a plurality of pitch horns, each mechanically coupled to a particular one of the plurality of rotor blades and to the main swashplate, for communicating swashplate inputs to each of the plurality of rotor blades, wherein each of the plurality of pitch horns is mechanically coupled to a particular one of the plurality of rotor blades in a particular position which yields a delta-3 value which is not optimum;
• and
• a feedback swashplate and cooperating feedback links for receiving rotor disk position inputs from the plurality of rotor blades during flight, and for supplying mechanical inputs to the main swashplate to compensate for the less than optimum mechanical coupling between the plurality of pitch horns and the plurality of rotor blades.

A rotary winged aircraft comprising:

• a craft body;
• a plurality of rotor blades in a rotor disk position substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of the craft body with direction of flight being controlled by a thrust vector;
• a yoke coupling through a flexible joint the plurality of rotor blades to a tilting mast in a manner which transfers torque and thrust while allowing thrust vector tilting;
• a main swashplate for tilting in response to operator inputs to control a pitch of the plurality of rotor blades which control the direction of a thrust vector, and for moving upward and downward coactively to modify a length associated with the thrust vector;
• a plurality of controllable actuators mechanically coupling the plurality of rotor blades to the swashplate for supplying mechanical input to each of the plurality of rotor blades;
• and
• a feedback control module for receiving displacement data from the plurality of rotor blades during flight, and for supplying displacements through actuation of the plurality of controllable actuators to the plurality of rotor blades to compensate for a less than optimum delta-3 coupling of the plurality of rotor blades.

A method of compensating for flapping movements of rotor blades in rotary wing aircraft, the method comprising the steps of:

• coupling a main swashplate to a pitch horn of each rotor blade;
• operably associating a feedback swashplate with the rotor blades;
• generating feedback signals corresponding to flapping movements of the rotor blades with the feedback swashplate;
• capturing a plurality of control signals from a pilot;
• combining the control signals and the feedback signals into combined signals with a signal mixer;
• and
• transferring the combined signals from the signal mixer to the rotor blades through the main swashplate, thereby compensating for the flapping movement of the rotor blades.