An exemplary blade lock for a tiltrotor aircraft to enable and disable a folding degree of freedom and a pitching degree of freedom of a rotor blade assembly includes a link pivotally connected to a lever and a bellcrank, where the link is in a center position when the lever is in a locked position disabling the folding degree of freedom and the lever is secured in the locked position when the link is positioned in an over-center position.

An exemplary blade lock for a tiltrotor aircraft to enable and disable a folding degree of freedom and a pitching degree of freedom of a rotor blade assembly includes a link pivotally connected to a lever and a bellcrank, where the link is in a center position when the lever is in a locked position disabling the folding degree of freedom and the lever is secured in the locked position when the link is positioned in an over-center position.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) having a UAV body, a propeller, an engine, a motor and a battery. The engine includes an engine body and an engine output shaft arranged on the engine body. The motor includes a stator, a rotor and a stator connector. The UAV provides the motor rotor, propeller and engine output shaft to be coaxially connected, and the motor can be used as a generator to charge the battery by doing negative work on the engine output shaft, or as an electric motor, that is, to receive the power of the battery and do positive work on the engine output shaft to realize power output, so that the UAV can realize high energy utilization and power redundancy at the same time.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) having a UAV body, a propeller, an engine, a motor and a battery. The engine includes an engine body and an engine output shaft arranged on the engine body. The motor includes a stator, a rotor and a stator connector. The UAV provides the motor rotor, propeller and engine output shaft to be coaxially connected, and the motor can be used as a generator to charge the battery by doing negative work on the engine output shaft, or as an electric motor, that is, to receive the power of the battery and do positive work on the engine output shaft to realize power output, so that the UAV can realize high energy utilization and power redundancy at the same time.

A tip gap monitoring system for a ducted aircraft having a proprotor system including a duct and a plurality of proprotor blades includes sensors coupled to the proprotor system. The sensors are configured to detect one or more parameters of the proprotor system to form a plurality of sensor measurements. The tip gap monitoring system also includes a flight control computer in data communication with the sensors. The flight control computer includes a tip gap measurement module configured to determine a tip gap distance between the duct and the proprotor blades based on the sensor measurements.

A leading edge structure for an aerodynamic surface of an aircraft with an outer wall part curved in a streamlined manner around an interior compartment and having an inner surface pointing toward the interior compartment and an outer surface provided for contact with the external surrounding flow. The outer wall part has a first outer wall section extending from a leading edge point in an incident flow direction in a convexly curved manner in the direction of a first side. The outer wall part has a second outer wall section which extends from the leading edge point in the incident flow direction in a convexly curved in the direction of a second side. An inner wall part is arranged in the interior compartment opposite the inner surface of the outer wall part and extends from the first outer wall section to the second outer wall section.

A propeller blade for an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”) is disclosed. The UAV includes a plurality of lift propellers and at least one thrust propeller. Each of the plurality of thrust propellers includes a thrust propeller blade coupled to a hub of the thrust propeller. The thrust propeller blade is configured such that a centrifugal force acting on the thrust propeller blade causes a thrust propeller disk area to increase from a first disk area when the UAV is in a first operational state to a second disk area when the UAV is in a second operational state.

A propeller blade for an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”) is disclosed. The UAV includes a plurality of lift propellers and at least one thrust propeller. Each of the plurality of thrust propellers includes a thrust propeller blade coupled to a hub of the thrust propeller. The thrust propeller blade is configured such that a centrifugal force acting on the thrust propeller blade causes a thrust propeller disk area to increase from a first disk area when the UAV is in a first operational state to a second disk area when the UAV is in a second operational state.

A turbine engine part coated in at least a first ceramic layer forming a thermal barrier and including a ceramic material with first ceramic fibers dispersed in the first layer. The first layer may have a chemical composition gradient between a material for forming a thermal barrier and a material for providing protection against calcium and magnesium aluminosilicates, which is present at a greater content in an outer zone of the first layer, and/or the first layer may be porous and may present a porosity gradient such that an outer portion of the first layer presents lower porosity.

An apparatus for facilitating propulsion of a vehicle. The apparatus comprises a housing with an interior space, an inlet, and an outlet, a propulsion mechanism, and a gimbal. The propulsion mechanism is disposed in the interior space and comprises and an upper rotor and a lower rotor rotatably mounted on a first portion and a second portion of a spindle. The upper rotor rotates in a first direction and the lower rotor rotates in a second direction opposite to the first direction. Upper rotor blades have a first blade pitch and lower rotor blades have a second blade pitch opposite to the first blade pitch. The rotating of the upper rotor and the lower rotor creates a fluid flow from the inlet to the outlet for generating a directional thrust. The gimbal rotatably attaches the propulsion mechanism to the housing. The housing is rotatable for vectoring the directional thrust.