The Boeing Company

Merlin Technology, Inc.

Derek Paul Vetter

John E Mercer

Kenneth Harlan Griess

Mark H Marvin

Michael Jeffrey Graves

Michael Robert Chapman

Khanh Mai Pham

Jiangtian Cheng

Forouzan Behzadpour

Lyle Ray Deobald

Madhavadas Ramnath

Aaron N Rinn

Patrick Woodard

Ying Shan

Drew Edward Sommer

Lyle R Deobald

An emergency collective actuator includes an actuator motor to produce an actuation force and an actuator linkage that directly engages a friction control lever that is pivotally supported on the collective stick of a helicopter to apply the actuation force directly to the friction control lever such that the actuation force initially disengages the friction control and then reduces the adjustable pitch toward a minimum collective pitch position. The actuator can include a clutch that slips to allow the pilot to overcome the actuation force and that slips responsive to an engagement of the friction control by the pilot, but otherwise the clutch co-rotates with the motor shaft to bias the adjustable pitch toward a minimum collective pitch position.

Advanced emergency collective actuator with friction pull-off and method for a helicopter

Interlaminar features of a composite structure are laid up by placing and steering individual chopped fiber pre-preg segments onto a substrate.

Forming composite features using steered discontinuous fiber pre-preg

A method and apparatus is presented. Layers of composite material are laid down on a forming tool. A respective bend is formed in each of the layers to form the composite filler comprising bent layers on the forming tool. The composite filler comprising the bent layers is placed into a gap formed by at least one composite structure.

Composite filler

A method and apparatus for forming a composite filler. A composite ply is folded. The composite ply comprises fibers arranged at an angle relative to a central axis of the composite ply such that the composite filler has a varying cross-sectional orientation of fibers. A force is applied to the folded composite ply after folding to form a desired shape for the composite filler.

Folded composite filler

A composite structure is provided. The composite structure includes a first stiffener, a second stiffener, and an intermediate structure positioned between the first and second stiffeners such that the first stiffener is coupled to a first side of the intermediate structure, and such that the second stiffener is coupled to a second opposing side of the intermediate structure. A first radius gap is defined at least partially between the first stiffener and the intermediate structure, and a second radius gap is defined at least partially between the second stiffener and the intermediate structure.

Composite structure and methods of forming thereof

A composite structure having a base charge and an outer channel charge is provided. The outer channel charge has an inner radius and an outer radius. A charge of plies adjacent to the inner radius reduces the inner radius.

Composite structures having reduced area radius fillers and methods of forming the same

There is provided in an embodiment a method of making a composite structure. The method includes the step of applying chopped fiber material in varying thicknesses onto a first ply surface of a first composite charge to form a layered composite charge. The method further includes the step of folding the layered composite charge. The method further includes the step of assembling a second composite charge and the folded layered composite charge to form a composite structure. The chopped fiber material forms a gap filler in the composite structure. The gap filler conforms to a shape of the composite structure surrounding the gap filler. The method further includes processing the composite structure.

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Olympia, WA, United States of America

Derek Paul Vetter