Airbus Helicopters

Eurocopter

Eurocopter France

Nicolas Pierre Certain

Setareh Taheri

Jean-Pierre Jalaguier

Jean-Baptiste Vallart

Jean-Pierre Baudry

Richard Pire

Marianne Gillet

Edwin Ortega

Etienne Poudrai

Olivier Delecroix

Christophe Perrin

Bernard Spinosi

Lionel Pignier

Eric Coisset

A regulator device for regulating a control setpoint for a speed of rotation, written NR, for at least one main rotor of a rotorcraft, the rotorcraft including at least one measurement member for taking measurements representative of a current vertical elevation of the rotorcraft relative to a reference level Ref; and measurement means serving to measure at least one vertical component of a travel speed of the rotorcraft relative to the air surrounding the rotorcraft, the regulator device for regulating the control setpoint of the speed including management means for automatically controlling the control setpoint for the speed in accordance with at least two predetermined control relationships that are distinct from each other.

Device for regulating a setpoint for a speed of rotation of a rotorcraft rotor, a rotorcraft fitted with such a device, and an associated method of regulation

A regulator device for regulating a speed of rotation, of a shaft of a gas generator of at least one turboshaft engine of a rotorcraft. The rotorcraft has at least one main rotor for regulating at least lift and/or propulsion for said rotorcraft in the air; a control member for controlling a collective pitch of the blades of said at least one main rotor, said control member serving to generate a control setpoint for said collective pitch; at least one turboshaft engine suitable for driving rotation of said at least one main rotor, said at least one engine producing, at least temporarily, a drive torque that is transmitted to said at least one main rotor; and measurement means for taking at each instant a measurement of said drive torque transmitted by said at least one engine to said at least one main rotor.

Device for regulating the speed of rotation of a gas generator shaft of a rotorcraft turboshaft engine, a rotorcraft provided with such a device, and an associated method of regulation

A method and a device for detecting that a rotorcraft is approaching a vortex domain. After previously determining a limit advance speed threshold and a limit vertical speed threshold defining a limit for said rotorcraft entering into a vortex domain, a predictive advance speed and a predictive vertical speed for said rotorcraft are calculated, said predictive vertical speed being calculated differently depending on the value of said instantaneous advance speed. Thereafter, said predictive advance speed and said predictive vertical speed are compared with said thresholds, which may be thresholds with hysteresis, in order to determine whether said rotorcraft is approaching a vortex domain, and if so to signal this situation to a pilot of said rotorcraft.

Detecting that a rotorcraft is approaching a vortex domain, and signaling that detection

A piloting assistance method for avoiding an obstacle with a rotorcraft flying along a current speed vector (Vect). An alert is generated by using a speed vector of the rotorcraft referred to as a 'calculation' speed vector (Vect) in order to determine whether the rotorcraft might impact an obstacle. During a correction stage and at each calculation iteration, the calculation speed vector (Vect) is determined using a horizontal component and a vertical component, the vertical component being a function of a current vertical speed of the rotorcraft relative to the ground corrected with a corrective term, the corrective term being a function of a product of a current path speed of the rotorcraft multiplied by the derivative of the path speed.

Method and a system for assisting piloting to avoid an obstacle with a rotorcraft

A device for regulating the speed of rotation of at least one main rotor of a rotorcraft, which speed is known as the speed NR. Such a rotorcraft comprises at least one manual flight control member for delivering a collective pitch control setpoint C for the blades of the at least one main rotor, the control setpoint C being a function of a current position of the at least one control member; and detector means enabling a current state to be detected from at least two distinct states of the rotorcraft, namely a 'ground' state in which the rotorcraft is in contact with the ground, at least in part, and a 'flight' state in which the rotorcraft is at least being sustained in the air.

Device for regulating the speed of rotation of a rotorcraft rotor, a rotorcraft fitted with such a device, and an associated regulation method

A method of determining the speed of the wind to be taken into account for determining a maximum authorized takeoff weight of an aircraft. A measured speed TASof the local wind is calculated from at least one current speed TASof the local wind and an observed speed TASof the local wind on the basis of weather observations and on the basis of a heading value. The measured speed TASis compared with the observed speed TASin order to determine a calculated speed TASof the local wind while also making use of at least one instability criterion of the local wind as supplied by the weather observations and weather forecasts. The calculated speed TASis then for taking into account in order to optimize the maximize authorized takeoff weight of the aircraft.

Method and a device for determining the wind speed to be taken into account in order to optimize the takeoff weight of an aircraft

A method of calculating and displaying the true airspeed of a rotorcraft. At least one omnidirectional airspeed sensor is installed at the top of a tail fin of the rotorcraft. The true airspeed of the rotorcraft flying at speeds that are lower than or equal to at least one airspeed threshold of the rotorcraft is calculated by correcting the measurements supplied by the airspeed sensor installed at the top of the tail fin as a function of the effects produced by the air stream generated by rotation of the main rotor of the rotorcraft on the characteristics of the speed of the air stream measured by the tail fin airspeed sensor. For this purpose, a correction rule calibrated in test flight is advantageously applied to correct the measurements supplied by the airspeed sensor installed at the top of the tail fin.

Rotorcraft having an airspeed sensor located at the top of a tail fin of the rotorcraft

An aircraft having a cockpit, said cockpit including a canopy provided with transparent surfaces fastened to bars, a central console, and two seats arranged transversely on either side of the central console. The aircraft includes at least one support () connected to the central console and at least one display unit for displaying multiple indications for assisting piloting, each display unit being carried by at least one support () interposed between a bar and a theoretical position of the eye of a person sitting on one of said two seats, each support () visually masking a bar at least in part, in order to optimize the visibility to the outside of the cockpit as made available to that person, the theoretical position being defined by the manufacturer.

Aircraft having a cockpit with optimized outside visibility and a method of optimizing the outside visibility

The invention relates to a rotor for a rotorcraft having foldable hinged blades, the rotor comprising a hub (), each blade being connected to the hub via a sleeve, each sleeve being hinged about a pitch axis () relative to the hub, the rotor including a respective lag damper () associated with each blade, each damper being hinged both to the hub and to the corresponding sleeve, the rotor including a system for controlling the pitch of the blades via respective pitch levers () secured to each of the sleeves; the rotor includes two abutments designed to co-operate with tooling for blocking the pitch of the blades, a first abutment presenting a bearing surface () matching a shape of revolution about an axis () of revolution, and a second abutment () designed to act axially along said axis of revolution.

Method and a device for blocking the pitch of a foldable blade of a rotorcraft rotor

On the rotor, between each blade and the member for linking with the hub, an electrical connecting cable comprises a first section of which one part is held above that one of the two blade pins which is the detachable pin whose withdrawal allows the folding of the blade by pivoting about the other blade pin forming a pivot pin, by a holding arrangement tied to this detachable pin, in the flight position of the blade. This section of cable is released from its holding arrangement before the withdrawal of the latter and of the detachable blade pin, which precedes the folding, in such a way that this section of cable deforms naturally on following the pivoting of the blade. After deployment of the blade, a part of the section of cable is again held in the holding arrangement, in the flight position of the blade.

Rotary-wing aircraft rotors with manually folding blades and electrical connection installation

The anti-vibration suspension device includes at least three diagonal bars each articulated on the transmission box and on the structure by a rigid lever supporting a damping weight itself articulated to at least pivot on this structure, and, for each diagonal bar, a tension bar also articulated on the transmission box and on the structure, the corresponding lever being articulated to the structure being articulated to at least pivot on the lower end part of the corresponding tension bar, which is flexible in tension.

Simplified anti-vibration suspension device for a helicopter

The thermal protection device comprises, for at least one elastomeric component of a rotor, at least one element which is fitted onto the rotor so as to reduce heat exchange between the elastomeric component and the ambient air. The element may be thermally insulating and may include at least one layer of a thermal insulation material and means for fitting it onto a metal reinforcement of the elastomeric component so as to cover its free surfaces, which are exposed to the ambient air, and/or at least one deflector sheltering, at least partially, a laminated part of the elastomeric component from the relative wind in order to reduce forced convection.

Device for thermally protecting elastomeric components, system of such

Each blade of the rotor has a rigid root oversleeve connected to a torsionable and flexible root strip by two laminated, spherical support half bearings, fixed by their outer frame with double rigid horns the lateral ends of which facing each other on each side of the strip and half bearings are clamped towards each other and against struts so as to allow a significant, calibrated pre-compression of the half bearings. The double horns and/or struts are fixed axially to the oversleeves by fixing elements distinct from the compression means of the double horns on the struts and perpendicular to these compression horns on the struts and perpendicular to these compression elements. One of the struts, possibly in a single piece with one double horn, is also in a single piece with a pitch lever.

Hingeless rotor with precompressed half-bearings supporting blade root

The device comprises a detachable distance-piece (19') with a pivot (20) retained in a pivoting way in the yoke (7b) of a member (7) connecting a blade (4) to the hub, by one of the two blade pins (15) and a distance-piece yoke (22') in which the blade root (6) is retained pivoting by a fitting pin (18'). The blade (4) is folded by pivoting its root (6) with respect to the distance piece (19') and pivoting the latter with respect to the yoke (7b), with a lateral shift with respect to the conventional folding without a detachable distance-piece (19'), and with a fitting pin (18') which can be inclined with respect to the blade pin (15).

Device for folding of a helicopter rotor blade

The device comprises, between two blades and their members linking them to the hub, three levers articulated by ball joints to the members and to the hub, the two levers pivoting on the third one about axes of pivoting parallel to each other and perpendicular to the common plane passing through the centres of the ball joints. At least one of the levers comprises at least one drag damper.

Growing community of inventors

Aix-en-Provence, France

Nicolas Pierre Certain