Eurocopter France

Eurocopter France S.a.

Philippe Maurice Legendre

Thomas Pierre Manfredotti

Etienne Jean Rampal

Jean-Luc M Leman

Philippe Maurice Antomarchi

Gilles D Herpin

A hingeless rotor including a rotor mast driven in rotation about an axis of the rotor, a hub secured in terms of rotation to the mast, and at least two blades, each of which is, firstly, joined to the hub by a root attachment part comprising at least one arm which can twist about a longitudinal pitch-change axis of the blade and, secondly, equipped with a cuff which is rigid in torsion, surrounding the at least one twistable arm, and the radially external part of the cuff, with respect to the rotor axis is secured in terms of torsion to the blade and to the twistable arm about the pitch-change axis, while the radially internal part of the cuff surrounds, without contact, the at least one twistable arm and exhibits a pitch lever projecting towards the outside of the cuff and joined to a pitch-control rod, wherein, for each blade, an intermediate pitch-control ring which is rigid in terms of torsion about the corresponding pitch-change axis, and which surrounds the corresponding at least one twistable arm is arranged substantially between the hub and the radially internal part of the corresponding cuff, the ring being joined to the hub and the radially internal part of the corresponding hub by two ball joints, the first one of which articulates the ring to the hub and the second one of which articulates the ring to the cuff.

Hingeless rotor with intermediate pitch-control rings

For each blade, the cuff which is rigid in torsion, surrounding the corresponding rotor attachment twistable arm, bears two opposed pitch levers each articulated to one respectively of two intermediate connecting rods which are moreover articulated to one and the same transmission lever on either side of a pivoting link by means of which this lever pivots on a pivot secured to the rotor mast. The transmission lever is additionally articulated to the pitch-control rod at a point which is offset with respect to its pivoting link. A crossmember is articulated to the connecting rods and interacts with an assembly having a drag damper, this assembly itself being articulated to a fixed point secured in terms of rotation to the rotor mast.

Pitch-control devices for hingeless rotors

Mechanical assembly for transmitting forces along an axis driven by a substantially axial movement in translation under the effect of a thrust load. This mechanical assembly comprises a transmitting part of the thrust load input movement and a receiving part of the thrust load output movement, said mechanical assembly comprising a detector for detecting the passing of a force threshold represented by a predetermined value of the thrust load, and including an elastic element and an indicator part arranged in such a way that when the thrust load exceeds the threshold value, the thrust load acts on the elastic element and modifies its axial dimension allowing the indicator part to move to the warning position.

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Grans, France

Philippe Maurice Legendre