Westland Aircraft Limited

Alan H Vincent

Stephen P King

Ronald William Cure

A vibration absorber for a helicopter rotor includes a hub portion, a mass portion encircling the hub portion and a plurality of resilient arms extending in a spaced-apart spiral pattern between the hub and the mass. In operation, the hub portion of the vibration absorber is mounted on a helicopter rotor so as to be rotated with the rotor about an axis of rotation of the rotor, the resilient arms ensuring that the mass is capable of equal resilient deflection in any direction within its plane of rotation whereby the vibration absorber simultaneously reduces in-plane vibration forces of different frequencies.

Vibration absorber for helicopter

A vibration absorber includes a hub arranged for rotation during operation about an aixs, a mass encircling the hub and a plurality of resilient arms extending in a spaced-apart spiral pattern between the hub and the mass so that the mass rotates with the hub in a plane of rotation perpendicular to the axis and is capable of equal resilient deflection in any direction within its plane of rotation. In operation the absorber operates as a spring mass device and finds particular application in damping vibrations in a helicopter rotor due to the facility to simultaneously cancel vibration forces of different frequencies.

Vibration absorbers

This invention relates to improvements in bifilar vibration dampers, and particularly to such dampers for use in absorbing vibrations in a helicopter main rotor system. The improved bifilar construction prevents detrimental inertia forces affecting the tuning of the damper and also prevents the ingress of dirt and dust into the moving parts.

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East Coker, United Kingdom

Alan H Vincent