Abstract:
A helicopter rotor blade to hub arm attachment configured to react centrifugal loads from the blade through a blade cuff, spindle, and elastomeric bearings utilizes a pre-loaded bolt through the spindle for load sharing therewith and a spindle integrity monitoring indicator to provide a visual showing of a deviation from the normal load sharing proportion.
Abstract:
A helicopter hub main retention plate is described made up of graphite and glass fiber reinforced epoxy resin. The graphite fiber reinforcement is in-plane isotropically laid continuous graphite fibers and the glass fiber reinforcement comprises segments of fiberglass continuously and circumferentially wound round the areas of retention. Such materials and configuration provide crack resistance, damage tolerance, and integrity inspectability to the retention plate.