The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 12, 2001
Filed:
May. 19, 1999
John V. Howard, Arlington, TX (US);
Ramesh Thiagarajan, Plano, TX (US);
Michael R. Smith, Colleyville, TX (US);
Ashish K. Sareen, Euless, TX (US);
Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., Fort Worth, TX (US);
Abstract
A skid landing gear for a helicopter, in which the directional stiffnesses of the cross members of the skid landing gear have been de-coupled from one another, such that optimization of the longitudinal stiffness of the cross members may be performed independently of the optimization of the vertical stiffness and fatigue life of the cross members. In order to de-couple the stiffnesses in the skid type landing gear, two approaches are employed. In the first approach, the skid landing gear has non-symmetric-section cross members and/or distribution of different materials within the cross-section for de-coupling the vertical stiffness of the cross members from the longitudinal stiffness, such that placement of the ground resonance frequency may be optimized, while retaining the vertical stiffness properties essential for optimizing vertical energy attenuation and fatigue life. In the second approach, mounting devices are employed that provide compliance in selected directions, thereby de-coupling the directional stiffnesses.