Textron Innovations Inc.

Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.

Joseph Wendelsdorf

Brian Edward Tucker

Glenn Alan Shimek

Leonard N Jones

Charles Eric Covington

Walter West Riley

Gary Scott Froman

Keith Hale

Victor L Berry

A sensor for monitoring rotors includes a rotating shaft coupled to a set of rotor blades and a non-rotating tube at least partially disposed within the rotating shaft and coupled to the rotating shaft. The non-rotating tube includes a first end and a second end, a sensor mount disposed within the non-rotating tube proximate to the second end of the non-rotating tube. One or more sensors are attached to the sensor mount.

Sensor for monitoring rotors

A sensor for monitoring rotors includes a rotating shaft coupled to a set of rotor blades and a non-rotating tube at least partially disposed within the rotating shaft and coupled to the rotating shaft. The non-rotating tube includes a first end and a second end, a sensor mount disposed within the non-rotating tube proximate to the second end of the non-rotating tube. One or more sensors are attached to the sensor mount, wherein the one or more sensors detect one or more parameters associated with the rotating shaft or the set of rotor blades.

A method of optimizing an operation of a rotorcraft includes measuring actual usage of the tail rotor drive shaft during operation of the rotorcraft, the actual usage including at least a torque measurement. The method further includes a step of adjusting a life of the tail rotor drive shaft based upon the measuring of the actual usage. Another method of the present disclosure includes determining a main rotor mast torque by measuring a tail rotor drive shaft torque and deriving a main rotor mast torque by considering the measured tail rotor drive shaft torque and a total torque output of an engine. A system of the present disclosure is configured for determining the main rotor mast torque in part by measuring the tail rotor torque.

System and method of measuring and monitoring torque in a rotorcraft drive system

A method is disclosed for suppressing an external acoustic signature of an aircraft having at least one pair of non-intermeshing multiple-blade rotors. During operation of the aircraft, the at least one pair of rotors are rotated in an asymmetrically indexed manner that causes the blades of one of each pair of rotors to be consistently out of phase from the blades of the other of each pair of rotors. The selected amount in degrees of asymmetrical indexing is equal to the desired phasing in degrees divided by a number of blades of one of the rotors.

Method for suppressing vibration and acoustic signature in a tiltrotor aircraft

A bearing monitor has a bearing sensor to monitor frequencies emitted by a bearing in a rotating component. The bearing sensor has an output to a processor. The processor is attached to the rotating component to process the output from the bearing sensor to a digital or logical signal, which may include determining if the output indicates that the bearing requires service.

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Arlington, TX, United States of America

Joseph Wendelsdorf