Mission replaceable rotor blade tip section
AssigneeSikorsky Aircraft Corporation
InventorsDavid A. Kovalsky, Kevin P. Viola
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A rotor blade includes a removable blade tip section which is mounted to an outboard rotor blade section by mechanically mounting a tip spar to a main blade spar with a spar interface section which bridges a butt joint between the blade spar and the tip spar. The spar interface section is mounted within the blade spar and the tip spar with a multiple of threaded fasteners which are under shear load during rotor blade rotation.
Claims29
A rotor blade comprising:
- a blade spar within a rotor blade;
- a tip spar within a removable blade tip section;
- a spar interface section which engages said blade spar and said tip spar;
- and
- a multiple of removable fasteners which removably attach said blade spar and said tip spar to said spar interface section, removal of said multiple of removable fasteners releases said removable blade tip section from said rotor blade.
A removable tip section for a rotor blade comprising:
- a tip spar within a removable blade tip section, said removable tip section defining an anhedral form;
- a spar interface section which removably engages the rotor blade and said tip spar;
- and
- a multiple of threaded fasteners which attach said tip spar to said spar interface section at a butt joint located within a constant mid-span airfoil cross-section.
A removable tip section for a rotor blade comprising:
- a tip spar within a removable blade tip section, said removable blade tip section defining an anhedral form, wherein said tip spar includes a tip spar section upper surface and a tip spar section lower surface which transitions to an inboard tip spar section upper surface and an inboard tip spar section lower surface at a respective upper and lower ramped tip spar transition surface;
- a spar interface section which engages said tip spar;
- and
- a multiple of threaded fasteners which attach said tip spar to said spar interface section at a butt joint located within a constant mid-span airfoil cross-section.
A removable tip section for a rotor blade comprising:
- a tip spar within a removable blade tip section, said removable blade tip section defining an anhedral form, wherein said tip spar includes an inboard tip spar section and an outboard tip spar section, said inboard tip spar section generally extending parallel to a feathering axis P defined by a main rotor blade spar and said outboard tip spar section angled relative thereto to define a sweep;
- a spar interface section which engages said tip spar;
- and
- a multiple of threaded fasteners which attach said tip spar to said spar interface section at a butt joint located within a constant mid-span airfoil cross-section.
A main rotor blade assembly for a rotary wing aircraft comprising an inboard section, an intermediate section, and an outboard section which define the span of the main rotor blade assembly, wherein said main rotor blade is modular so that a first portion of the blade is removeable with respect to a second portion of the blade at an independently removable spar interface section to accommodate specific mission profiles.
A main rotor blade assembly for a rotary wing aircraft comprising:
- an inboard section;
- an intermediate section;
- an outboard section which defines the span of the main rotor blade assembly, wherein said main rotor blade is modular so that a first portion of the blade is removable with respect to a second portion of the blade to accommodate for specific mission profiles;
- an inboard blade spar in the first portion of the blade;
- an outboard blade spar in the second portion of the blade;
- a spar interface section which engages said inboard blade spar and said outboard blade spar;
- and
- a plurality of removeable fasteners which removeably attaches said inboard blade spar to said spar interface section, and which removeably attaches said spar interface section to said outboard blade spar, removal of said fasteners permits release of said first portion of said blade with respect to said second portion of the blade.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.