Kawasaki Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Technical Research and Development Institute, Japan Defense Agency

Masahiro Kashiwagi

Shunichi Bandoh

Tadashi Wakatsuki

Asao Kakinuma

Yoshiyuki Niwa

Masahiro Yasue

A bearingless hub structure for rotary-wing aircrafts comprising a hub body ecured to a rotor shaft, a plurality of radially extending flexbeams integrally formed with the hub body, and pitch housings enclosing each of the flexbeams in spaced relationship, the pitch housing having a radially outer end portion rigidly secured to an inboard end of a rotor blade and a radially inner end portion supported by a spherical bearing in the vicinity of a root end of said flexbeam. The flexbeam consists of a flexible element of low lead-lag stiffness and a torsion element of low torsional stiffness located radially outside the flexible element. The flexible element consists of two beam-like members having radially inner ends spaced in the lead-lag direction and extending radially outward with narrowing the distance between them, the beam-like member having radially outer end connected to a radially inner end of the torsion element.

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Tachikawa, Japan

Masahiro Kashiwagi