Kawasaki Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Advanced Technology Institute of Commuter-Helicopter, Ltd.

Kawasaki Jukogyo Kabushiki

Japan as Represented by Director General, Technical Research and

Technical Research and Development Institute, Japan Defense Agency

Asao Kakinuma

Shunichi Bandoh

Tadashi Wakatsuki

Noriaki Katayama

Tetsuya Hori

Yoshiyuki Niwa

Kanehiro Hanayama

Eiichi Nakasato

Takahiro Ichihashi

Masahiro Kashiwagi

Masahiro Yasue

Keizou Yamamoto

A flap hinge mechanism has a blade-secured portion secured to blade, a flap-secured portion secured to flap, and a coupling portion which couples the blade-secured portion and the flap-secured portion so as to permit angular displacement. The blade-secured portion, coupling portion, and flap-secured portion are formed of fibers which serve as composite material. The fibers of the blade-secured portion and flap-secured portion are impregnated with matrices, and the fibers of the coupling portion are not impregnated with a matrix. Such constitution permits attainment of smooth flap motion in spite of large centrifugal forces, making the achievement of thin, light designs possible.

Flap hinge mechanism, method for manufacturing the same, and flap hinge apparatus

A bearingless hub structure for a rotary-wing aircraft is provided, the structure including a hub body adapted to be securely connected to a rotor mast, a plurality of flexible beam members provided integrally with the hub body to extend radially outwardly, a pitch housing encircling each of the flexible beam members, and having a radially outward end portion which is rigid with a radially inward end portion of a rotor blade, a spherical bearing positioned adjacent to a radially inward end portion of the flexible beam member for supporting the pitch housing, a lead-lag damper positioned between the flexible beam member and the pitch housing, and the flexible beam members each having a flexible plate portion which is of a low bending rigidity in a flapping direction, a flexible portion provided radially outwardly of the flexible plate portion having a low bending rigidity in the lead-lag direction, and a twist-flex portion provided radially outwardly of the flexible portion. The flexible portion has two beam sections which have radially outward end portions integrally connected with a radially inward end portion of a twist-flex portion, with the radially inward end portions of the beam sections being removably connected to a radially outward end portion of the flexible plate portion at a plurality of circumferentially spaced positions.

Hub structure for a rotary wing aircraft

A bearingless hub structure for rotary-wing aircrafts comprising a hub body ecured to a rotor shaft, a plurality of radially extending flexbeams integrally formed with the hub body, and pitch housings enclosing each of the flexbeams in spaced relationship, the pitch housing having a radially outer end portion rigidly secured to an inboard end of a rotor blade and a radially inner end portion supported by a spherical bearing in the vicinity of a root end of said flexbeam. The flexbeam consists of a flexible element of low lead-lag stiffness and a torsion element of low torsional stiffness located radially outside the flexible element. The flexible element consists of two beam-like members having radially inner ends spaced in the lead-lag direction and extending radially outward with narrowing the distance between them, the beam-like member having radially outer end connected to a radially inner end of the torsion element.

Bearingless hub structure for rotary-wing aircrafts

Growing community of inventors

Kakamigahara, Japan

Asao Kakinuma