Kawasaki Jukogyo Kabushiki

Japan As Represented by Director General, Technical Research and

Takahiro Ichihashi

Shunichi Bandoh

Tadashi Wakatsuki

Asao Kakinuma

Keizou Yamamoto

Kanehiro Hanayama

A bearingless hub structure for a rotary-wing aircraft is provided, the structure including a hub body adapted to be securely connected to a rotor mast, a plurality of flexible beam members provided integrally with the hub body to extend radially outwardly, a pitch housing encircling each of the flexible beam members, and having a radially outward end portion which is rigid with a radially inward end portion of a rotor blade, a spherical bearing positioned adjacent to a radially inward end portion of the flexible beam member for supporting the pitch housing, a lead-lag damper positioned between the flexible beam member and the pitch housing, and the flexible beam members each having a flexible plate portion which is of a low bending rigidity in a flapping direction, a flexible portion provided radially outwardly of the flexible plate portion having a low bending rigidity in the lead-lag direction, and a twist-flex portion provided radially outwardly of the flexible portion. The flexible portion has two beam sections which have radially outward end portions integrally connected with a radially inward end portion of a twist-flex portion, with the radially inward end portions of the beam sections being removably connected to a radially outward end portion of the flexible plate portion at a plurality of circumferentially spaced positions.

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Tachikawa, Japan

Takahiro Ichihashi