Soft inplane bearingless helicopter rotor

摘要

A soft inplane bearingless rotor to be rigidly mounted on a helicopter mast (11) comprises: a unitary yoke (10) having a flat hub section (12) adapted to be anchored to the end of said mast (11) and having diametrically opposed blade-supporting arms (20 - 26) extending from said hub section (12), each arm (20 - 26) having a thin flapping section (30) adjacent said hub section (12) and a feathering section (32) extending from said flapping section (30) with blade attachments (52 - 56) at the end of each of said arms (20 - 26), said arms (20 - 26) including a plurality of fiber reinforced composite parallel ribs (40 - 46) extending span-wise with predetermined inplane spacing. A blade (50) is secured to each attachment (52 - 56) with a cuff (58) extending inboard to said flapping section (30). Bearing structure interconnects the inboard end of said cuff (58) and said flapping section (30) and includes inplane resilient structure for soft inplane restraint of said blade (50).