Textron Corporation

Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.

Troy M Gaffey

William D Neathery

Willem Broekhuizen

Mukund M Joglekar

Michael L Grimes

David L Kidd

A vibration absorber is provided having a pendulum (12) mounted on a body (21) for oscillation about an axis (13). A pair of resilient members (14, 15) are mounted on the body (21) in contact with the pendulum (12) in preloaded opposed relation with respect to oscillation of the pendulum (12) about the axis (13) and resonant at the frequency of the vibration. A pair of resilient members (16, 17) are mounted on the body (21) to contact the pendulum (12) only upon oscillation of magnitude beyond a predetermined limit.

Nonlinear vibration absorber

A helicopter having a multiblade main rotor lift unit includes a plurality of pendulus mass units (48,60) mounted to oscillate in the plane of the rotor. The mass units (48,60) are connected to a rotatable shaft (24) which passes through a blade grip (14) for each blade (16). Vibrations generated in the plane of the rotor system are damped by the oscillating pendulums (22) which are tuned to minimize the vibrations in the lift unit.

Blade-mounted centrifugal pendulum

A helicopter having a main rotor lift unit includes a plurality of pendulus mass units (44, 46) mounted to oscillate in a plane perpendicular to the chord plane of the rotor blade (10). The mass units (44, 46) are connected to a rotatable shaft (28) which passes through or adjacent the blade grip (12) for each blade (10). Hubshear vibrations generated parallel to the axis of the rotor mast (18) are damped by the oscillating mass units (44, 46) which are tuned to minimize the vibrations transmitted from the lift unit to the fuselage.

Growing community of inventors

Arlington, TX, United States of America

Troy M Gaffey