Rotorcraft empennage mounting system

#This application: claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/532,233, filed on Sep. 8, 2011. This application incorporates by reference all of the following applications: U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/433,427, filed on Mar. 29, 2012, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/468,964, filed on Mar. 29, 2011, U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/499,996, filed on Jun. 22, 2011, U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/506,572, filed on Jul. 11, 2011, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/539,668, filed on Sep. 27, 2011; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/199,671, filed on Sep. 7, 2011, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/381,291, filed on Sep. 9, 2010, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/199,684, filed on Sep. 7, 2011, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/403,099, filed on Sep. 9, 2010; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/199,678, filed on Sep. 7, 2011, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/403,097, filed on Sep. 9, 2010; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/199,682, filed on Sep. 7, 2011, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/381,313, filed on Sep. 9, 2010; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/199,681, filed on Sep. 7, 2011, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/403,111, filed on Sep. 9, 2010; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/199,677, filed on Sep. 7, 2011, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/381,347, filed on Sep. 9, 2010; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/199,679, filed on Sep. 7, 2011, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/403,136, filed on Sep. 9, 2010; U.S. patent application Ser. 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No. 61/626,783, filed on Oct. 3, 2011. All the foregoing applications are hereby incorporated by reference.

#Additionally, this patent application hereby incorporates by reference U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,900 issued Apr. 12, 1994 to Groen et al., U.S. Pat. No. 1,947,901 issued Feb. 20, 1934 to J. De la Cierva, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,352,342 issued Jun. 27, 1944 to H. F. Pitcairn.

#1. The Field of the Invention

#The foregoing features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are, therefore, not to be considered limiting of its scope, the invention will be described with additional specificity and detail through use of the accompanying drawings in which:

#FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a rotorcraft in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

#FIG. 2 is a top plan view of an empennage in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

#It will be readily understood that the components of the present invention, as generally described and illustrated in the drawings herein, could be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following more detailed description of the embodiments of the system and method of the present invention, as represented in the drawings, is not intended to limit the scope of the invention, as claimed, but is merely representative of various embodiments of the invention. The illustrated embodiments of the invention will be best understood by reference to the drawings, wherein like parts are designated by like numerals throughout.

#This patent application hereby incorporates by reference U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,900 issued Apr. 12, 1994 to Groen et al., U.S. Pat. No. 1,947,901 issued Feb. 20, 1934 to J. De la Cierva, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,352,342 issued Jun. 27, 1944 to H. F. Pitcairn.

#Referring to FIG. 1, an aircraft 10 may define a longitudinal direction 12, which corresponds generally to the direction of flight of the aircraft during sustained translational flight. A roll direction 14 may be defined as a rotation about an axis parallel to the longitudinal direction 12. A vertical direction 16 may be defined as perpendicular to the longitudinal axis and generally parallel to the force of gravity during sustained translational flight.