Westland Aircraft Limited

David Leonard Hawkings

Frederick John Perry

Geoffrey Malcolm Byham

Martin Vincent Lowson

A helicopter rotor blade includes a rearwardly swept tip portion having a leading edge of aerofoil profile located forward of the leading edge of a central portion of the blade, and blended with a sharp tip edge of higher sweep magnitude than the leading edge and extending rearwardly to an extreme tip of the blade. A rearwardly swept trailing edge extends from a junction with the trailing edge of the central portion to the extreme tip so that the tip portion has a chord dimension greater than that of the central portion of the blade. In operation, the rotor blade utilizes a stable vortex dominated flow field created over the tip portion to provide operational advantages in respect of both a retreating and an advancing blade.

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Yeovil, United Kingdom

David Leonard Hawkings