公开(公告)号：US20200031490A1

公开(公告)日：2020-01-30

申请号：US16436177

申请日：2019-06-10

Applicant: Textron Innovations Inc.

Inventor： Christopher M. Bothwell ,  Robert Earl Worsham, II ,  Sung Kyun Kim ,  Brandon Jeffrey Thomas

IPC: B64D45/00 ,  B64C27/08 ,  B64C27/68 ,  B64C13/10 ,  B64C27/78 ,  B64C27/82 ,  B64C13/50 ,  B64D43/00

Abstract: In an embodiment, a rotorcraft includes: tail rotor blades; a tail rotor actuator coupled to the tail rotor blades such that the pitch of the tail rotor blades varies according to a current extension of the tail rotor actuator; pilot flight controls electrically coupled to the tail rotor actuator; and a flight control computer electrically coupled to the tail rotor actuator and the pilot flight controls, the flight control computer configured to: determine the current extension of the tail rotor actuator; determine whether the current extension of the tail rotor actuator is within a margin of a maximum extension of the tail rotor actuator; and indicate a first warning to a pilot in response to the current extension of the tail rotor actuator being within the margin of the maximum extension of the tail rotor actuator.

公开(公告)号：US11136136B2

公开(公告)日：2021-10-05

申请号：US15978646

申请日：2018-05-14

Applicant: Textron Innovations Inc.

Inventor： Robert Earl Worsham, II ,  Morganne Cody Klein ,  Christopher M. Bothwell ,  Luke Dafydd Gillett ,  Jillian Samantha Alfred ,  Sung Kyun Kim ,  Stephanie Baynham ,  Troy Caudill

IPC: B64D43/00 ,  B64D45/00 ,  B64C13/04 ,  B64C13/50 ,  B64C27/57 ,  B64C13/18 ,  G01C23/00

Abstract: In an embodiment, a method of indicating flight modes of a rotorcraft includes: detecting a change in flight mode of the rotorcraft from a previous flight mode to an active flight mode, the active flight mode and the previous flight mode each being from one of a first subset or a second subset of a plurality of flight modes; determining whether the active flight mode and the previous flight mode are from different subsets of the plurality of flight modes; and updating one or more flight mode indicators on an instrument panel of the rotorcraft in response to the active flight mode and the previous flight mode being from different subsets of the plurality of flight modes.

公开(公告)号：US20200023955A1

公开(公告)日：2020-01-23

申请号：US16042767

申请日：2018-07-23

Applicant: Textron Innovations Inc.

Inventor： Robert Earl Worsham, II ,  Luke Dafydd Gillett ,  Christopher M. Bothwell

IPC: B64C27/57 ,  G08G5/00 ,  G01C23/00 ,  G05D1/08 ,  G05B6/02

Abstract: A rotorcraft including a fly-by-wire control system also includes a flight control computer (FCC) operable to control flight of the rotorcraft by sending control signals to flight control elements of the rotorcraft. The rotorcraft includes a flight director system coupled to the FCC and configured to send a target signal to the FCC. The target signal indicates a desired flight characteristic of the rotorcraft. The FCC is configured to receive the target signal from the flight director system, determine control signals based on the target signal, and send the control signals to the flight control elements of the rotorcraft to control the flight of the rotorcraft based on the target signal.