Textron Corporation

James L Braswell

Cecil E Covington

Nolan B Phillips

Robert M Wohlfeld

David E Snyder

Reggie J Tomerlin

A helicopter main rotor blade having a metallic nose spar extending the length of the leading edge of the blade and a trailing edge skin attached to the nose spar. A closure channel fixed within the nose spar extends the length thereof with unidirectional fiberglass material fixed to and extending along the length of the closure channel. A bushing on the inboard end of the blade preferably is attached both to the nose spar and the fiberglass bands for transfer of centrifugal forces in the blade to a grip.

Helicopter blade structure

A composite rotor blade has a nose spar of fiber reinforced plastic with the fibers extending spanwise the length of the spar and at the root encircling a transverse hub attachment structure with the spar provided with a tubular inner liner of cross ply filament wound fiberglass forming a closure for the nose spar with a blad afterbody structure including skins for integrating the afterbody with the nose spar and liner. Preferably the spar has an inner liner and an outer liner both of cross ply filament wound fiberglass in multi layers. The blade afterbody structure includes honeycomb filler having cells extending in the direction of blade thickness.

Growing community of inventors

Hurst, TX, United States of America

James L Braswell