Aircraft wheel bearing arrangement
AssigneeBorealis Technical Limited
InventorScott Perkins
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A bearing arrangement for an aircraft landing gear wheel is provided that effectively supports the wheel on an axle while maximizing internal wheel volume available for mounting a non-engine drive motor used to power the wheel and/or brakes or other structures within the maximized wheel volume. The bearing arrangement is preferably employed with a two-part aircraft wheel mounted on a landing gear axle and includes bearing structures located only on wheel sections adjacent to the axle. A specifically configured cantilevered joint portion of inboard and outboard wheel sections supports weight and loads bearing structures, eliminating the need for and space required by a high speed bearing. Stiffness necessary for strength and structural integrity is provided by the materials selected to form the wheel sections.
Claims18
A bearing arrangement for an aircraft landing gear wheel that eliminates the need for a high speed bearing and increases landing gear wheel internal volume and landing gear wheel structural integrity, comprising:
- a. an aircraft landing gear wheel comprising an inboard wheel section and an outboard wheel section extending axially along an aircraft landing gear wheel axle and radially between the axle and a tire mounted on the landing gear wheel;
- b. a landing gear wheel internal volume formed within said inboard wheel section extending axially adjacent to the axle and radially between the axle and the tire to form a joint between an outer axial portion of said outboard wheel section adjacent to the tire and said outboard wheel section extending from said outer axial portion radially between the tire and the axle and axially adjacent to the axle, wherein a connection between an inboard wheel section axial portion adjacent to the axle and an outboard wheel section axial portion adjacent to the axle comprises a cantilevered joint;
- and
- c. a pair of spaced bearing elements supporting the inboard and outboard wheel sections on the axle, wherein one of said bearing elements is positioned within said cantilevered joint in bearing contact between said inboard wheel section axial portion and said outboard wheel section axial portion and the other of said bearing elements is positioned in bearing contact between said outboard wheel section axial portion and the axle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.