Textron Innovations Inc.

Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.

Guillaume Biron

Marc Ouellet

Alexis Dugré

Maxime Lapalme

Marc Bustamante

Chen Kuang

Thuvaragan Senthilnathan

Mathieu Ruël

Leigh Altman

Kuang Chen

An electrically distributed yaw control system for a helicopter having a tailboom and a power system includes one or more tail rotors including a motor rotatably coupled to the tailboom and a power distribution unit. The power distribution unit includes a power management monitoring module configured to monitor one or more flight parameters of the helicopter and a power management command module configured to allocate power between the power system and the one or more tail rotor motors based on the one or more flight parameters of the helicopter.

Power management systems for electrically distributed yaw control systems

An architecture for an electric distributed propulsion system includes one or more generators connected to a gearbox, a first and a second plurality of motors connected to the one or more generators, each motor of the plurality of motors connected to a blade to provide thrust, a first and a second power bus electrically connected between the one or more generators and the first and the second plurality of motors, each power bus independent of the other power bus, a first and a second controller independently connected to each of the first and second plurality of motors, each of the first and second controllers serving as a primary and a backup controller, and dual channels in communication between pilot input sensors and the first and the second controllers, and the dual channels including an additional channel to provide redundant communication to the first and second controllers.

Electric distributed anti-torque architecture

A yaw control system coupled to a tailboom of a helicopter includes tail rotors. The tail rotors include a clockwise tail rotor and a counterclockwise tail rotor. The clockwise tail rotor is configured to rotate in a first rotational direction. The counterclockwise tail rotor is configured to rotate in a second rotational direction, the second rotational direction opposite of the first rotational direction.

Tail rotor configurations for rotorcraft yaw control systems

A yaw control system for a helicopter having a tailboom and a forward flight mode includes a surface coupled to the tailboom, one or more tail rotors coupled to the surface, a flight control computer implementing a yaw controller having a rudder control module and a tail rotor rotational speed reduction module and a rudder rotatably coupled to the surface. The tail rotor rotational speed reduction module is configured to selectively switch the one or more tail rotors into a rotational speed reduction mode in the helicopter forward flight mode. The rudder control module is configured to rotate the rudder in the rotational speed reduction mode of the one or more tail rotors to control the yaw of the helicopter.

Rudders for rotorcraft yaw control systems

A yaw control system for a helicopter having an airframe that includes a tailboom includes one or more tail rotors rotatably coupled to the tailboom and a flight control computer implementing an airframe protection module. The airframe protection module includes an airframe protection monitoring module configured to monitor one or more flight parameters of the helicopter and an airframe protection command module configured to modify one or more operating parameters of the one or more tail rotors based on the one or more flight parameters of the helicopter, thereby protecting the airframe of the helicopter.

Airframe protection systems for use on rotorcraft

A yaw control system for a helicopter having a tailboom includes one or more tail rotors rotatably coupled to the tailboom and a quiet mode controller. The quiet mode controller includes a noise monitoring module configured to monitor one or more flight parameters of the helicopter and a quiet mode command module configured to selectively switch the one or more tail rotors to a quiet mode based on the one or more flight parameters. The quiet mode command module is also configured to modify one or more operating parameters of the one or more tail rotors in the quiet mode to reduce noise emitted by the helicopter.

Rotorcraft quiet modes

An electrically distributed yaw control system for a helicopter having a tailboom includes a plurality of tail rotors rotatably coupled to the tailboom and a flight control computer implementing a tail rotor balancing module. The tail rotor balancing module includes a tail rotor balancing monitoring module configured to monitor one or more parameters of the helicopter and identify a first set of one or more tail rotors in the plurality of tail rotors based on the one or more parameters. The tail rotor balancing module also includes a tail rotor balancing command module configured to modify one or more operating parameters of the first set of tail rotors.

Growing community of inventors

Blainville, Canada

Guillaume Biron