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US 9,169,009 B1Granted
Hub-mounted auxilliary systems for tipjets in a reaction drive rotor system
AssigneeGroen Brothers Aviation, Inc.
InventorJacob Johannes van der Westhuizen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A rotor system is disclosed for a reactive drive rotary wing aircraft. Apparatus and methods are disclosed for mounting to the rotor hub certain controls, both electrical and mechanical, as well as fuel delivery for tipjets mounted to rotor blades. Air passively or actively drawn through rotor may feed the tipjets directly through the blades, while fuel and control is delivered along the blade to the tip thereof.
Claims5
A rotorcraft comprising:
- an airframe;
- flight controls mounted within the airframe;
- a mast mounted to the airframe;
- a hub mounted to the mast and rotatable about a rotor axis;
- a plurality of assemblies coupled to the hub, each assembly comprising—
- a blade having a proximal end and a distal end, and mounted to the hub proximate the proximal end thereof;
- a rotating line extending from the hub to proximate the distal end of one of the blade;
- a tip jet mounted to the blade proximate the distal end thereof, the tipjet comprising an igniter and fuel injector;
- at least one of a fuel pump and an exciter mounted to the hub, and coupled to the tip jet by the rotating line;
- a non-rotating lines coupled to the flight controls;
- and
- a control lines coupled to the at least one the fuel pump and the exciter;
- and
- a rotary coupler coupling the plurality of control lines to the non-rotating lines of the plurality of assemblies.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.