Control member provided with a blade collective pitch lever and yaw control means, and an aircraft

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9415867-B2
Application number	US-201414165712-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 28, 2014
Priority date	Jan 29, 2013
Publication date	Aug 16, 2016
Grant date	Aug 16, 2016

Abstract

A control member ( 10 ) having a collective pitch lever ( 20 ) extending from a first end ( 21 ) to a second end ( 22 ). Said control member ( 10 ) has a handle ( 30 ) for controlling a yaw movement control device, said handle ( 30 ) being secured to an inner ring ( 40 ) that is guided to pivot about a second axis (AXLAC) by an outer ring ( 50 ) secured to said second end ( 22 ), said inner ring ( 40 ) being constrained to move together with said outer ring ( 50 ) and the lever ( 20 ) in pivoting about said first axis (AXCOL).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A control member provided with a collective pitch lever for controlling a collective pitch of a plurality of blades of at least one lift rotor of a rotorcraft, the rotorcraft having a yaw movement control device, the collective pitch lever extending from a first end towards a second end, the control member having a hinge hinged to the first end to enable the lever to pivot in a vertical plane (P 2 ) about a first axis (AXCOL) in order to generate an order for controlling the collective pitch of the blades, wherein the control member includes a handle for controlling the yaw movement control device, the handle being secured to an inner ring guided to turn about a second axis (AXLAC) by an outer ring secured to the second end so that a pilot turning a hand holding the handle causes the handle to turn relative to the outer ring in order to generate an order for controlling yaw movement, the inner ring being constrained to move together with the outer ring and the lever in pivoting about the first axis (AXCOL) so that a movement in elevation of the hand causes the lever to pivot about the first axis (AXCOL) in order to generate an order for controlling the collective pitch.

2. A member according to claim 1 , wherein the inner ring and the outer ring have a common axis of symmetry, the axis of symmetry coinciding with the second axis (AXLAC).

3. A member according to claim 1 , wherein the handle is mounted to pivot on the collective pitch lever about a second axis (AXLAC) perpendicular to a longitudinal axis (AXLONG) in which the lever extends.

4. A member according to claim 1 , wherein the inner ring is inscribed at least in part in the outer ring.

5. A member according to claim 1 , wherein the outer ring is inscribed at least in part in the inner ring.

6. A member according to claim 1 , wherein the control member includes measurement means for measuring an angular position of the inner ring relative to a yaw reference.

7. A member according to claim 1 , wherein the control member includes a measurement system for measuring an angular position of the lever relative to a collective pitch reference.

8. A member according to claim 1 , wherein the control member includes measurement means for measuring an angular position of the inner ring relative to a yaw reference and a measurement system for measuring am angular position of the lever relative to a collective pitch reference, and the control member includes a processor unit connected to the measurement means and to the measurement system to generate a control order for controlling the yaw movement of the rotorcraft as a function of an angular position of the handle and a control order for controlling the collective pitch as a function of the angular position of the lever.

9. A rotorcraft having at least one lift rotor provided with a plurality of blades and a yaw movement control device, wherein the rotorcraft is provided with a control member according to claim 1 for controlling the blades of the lift rotor in collective pitch and for controlling the yaw movement control device.

10. A rotorcraft according to claim 9 , wherein the control member includes a handle secured to an inner ring guided to pivot about a second axis (AXLAC) by an outer ring, and the second axis (AXLAC) about which the handle is pivotally guided in the outer ring is firstly situated in line with a pilot's forearm, and secondly is parallel to a sagittal plane (P 1 ) of the rotorcraft.

Assignees

• Airbus Helicopters

Inventors

• Kerdreux Christelle
• Colaprisco Marc
• Bardet David

Classifications

• G05G9/047

  the controlling member being movable by hand about orthogonal axes, e.g. joysticks {(for switches H01H25/04)} · CPC title

• B64C27/56 Primary

  characterised by the control initiating means, e.g. manually actuated · CPC title