Aircraft undercarriage with wheel brake and drive assembly having a coupler member

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9862484-B2
Application number	US-201514868803-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2015
Priority date	Oct 3, 2014
Publication date	Jan 9, 2018
Grant date	Jan 9, 2018

Abstract

An undercarriage having a wheel mounted on an axle ( 3 ), a brake and a drive assembly. The brake comprises a torsion tube ( 9 ), friction members ( 11 ) mounted around the torsion tube, and at least one brake actuator ( 13 ) for selectively exerting a braking force on the friction members. The drive assembly is operative to drive rotation of the wheel and comprises an electric motor ( 14 ) that is connected to a rim ( 5 ) of the wheel ( 4 ) by a coupler member ( 15 ). The coupler member extends at least in part around the axle ( 3 ) between the axle and the torsion tube ( 9 ) of the brake.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An aircraft undercarriage comprising at least:
a wheel ( 4 ) mounted on an axle ( 3 ) to rotate about an axis of rotation (X);
a brake ( 7 ) comprising a torsion tube ( 9 ) extending around the axle ( 3 ), friction members ( 11 ) mounted around the torsion tube ( 9 ) and extending between the torsion tube ( 9 ) and the wheel ( 4 ), and at least one brake actuator ( 13 ) for selectively exerting a braking force on the friction members; and
drive means for driving rotation of the wheel, the drive means comprising an electric motor ( 14 ) connected to a rim ( 5 ) of the wheel ( 4 ) by a coupler member ( 15 );
the undercarriage being characterized in that the coupler member ( 15 ) extends at least in part around the axle ( 3 ) between the axle and the torsion tube ( 9 ) of the brake.

2. The aircraft undercarriage according to claim 1 , wherein the coupler member ( 15 ) comprises a clutch member ( 35 ) for selectively connecting together the electric motor and the rim of the wheel, the clutch member facing the torsion tube.

3. The aircraft undercarriage according to claim 2 , wherein the clutch member includes clutch disks comprising at least one first clutch disk ( 36 ) constrained to rotate with the coupler member and at least one second clutch disk ( 37 ) constrained to rotate with the rim of the wheel.

4. The aircraft undercarriage according to claim 2 , wherein the brake includes an actuator carrier ( 8 ) carrying the brake actuator ( 13 ), and wherein the clutch member is actuated by a clutch actuator ( 40 ; 40 ′; 40 ″) carried by the brake actuator.

5. The aircraft undercarriage according to claim 4 , wherein the clutch actuator is mounted on an inside face ( 41 ) of the actuator carrier ( 8 ) and extends between the axle and the torsion tube of the brake.

6. The aircraft undercarriage according to claim 4 , wherein the clutch actuator is mounted on an outside face ( 51 ) of the actuator carrier.

7. The aircraft undercarriage according to claim 4 , wherein the coupler member ( 15 ) includes a drive shaft ( 18 ) having a toothed portion ( 19 ) and a tubular portion ( 20 ) extending at least in part around the axle between the axle and the actuator carrier.

8. The aircraft undercarriage according to claim 7 , wherein the toothed portion ( 19 ) forms part of angle take-off gearing.

9. The aircraft undercarriage according to claim 1 , wherein an outlet shaft of the electric motor ( 14 ) and the axis of rotation (X) of the wheel ( 4 ) are mutually orthogonal.

Assignees

• Messier Bugatti Dowty

Inventors

• Daffos Mathieu

Classifications

• Y02T50/823

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• B64C25/34

  wheeled type, e.g. multi-wheeled bogies · CPC title

• B64C25/405 Primary

  Powered wheels, e.g. for taxing · CPC title

• B64C25/42

  Arrangement or adaptation of brakes · CPC title

• Y02T50/80

  Energy efficient operational measures, e.g. ground operations or mission management · CPC title