A pitch change mechanism for an aircraft engine includes a unison ring, a plurality of crankshafts coupled to the unison ring and configured to receive a plurality of blades, an inner shaft coupled to the plurality of crankshafts and the unison ring, and an actuator cylinder and an actuator piston. The actuator cylinder is coupled to the inner shaft and is configured to move relative to the actuator piston along a longitudinal axis of the pitch change mechanism. Movement of the actuator cylinder relative to the actuator piston is transferred to a rotation of each of the plurality of crankshafts around a longitudinal axis of each of the plurality of crankshafts to change a pitch of the plurality of blades.

Aspects of this present disclosure relate to flight control of electric aircrafts and other vehicles. In one embodiment, an aircraft is disclosed comprising: a fuselage; two wings; a plurality of lift propellers, the lift propellers disposed aft of the wings during forward flight; plurality of tilt propellers that are tiltable between vertical lift and forward propulsion configurations, the tilt propellers disposed forward of the wings during forward flight; a plurality of tilt propellor actuators that tilt propellers between vertical lift and forward propulsion configurations, the tilt propellor actuators on opposite sides of the fuselage; and a plurality of electrical buses coupled to a flight control computer; wherein the flight control computer is configured to provide control signals for at least one of the lift propellers mounted to one of the wings and one of the tilt propellers mounted to the other wing via the same electrical bus.

Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to systems and methods for flight control of aircrafts driven by electric propulsion systems and in other types of vehicles. In some embodiments, an aircraft is disclosed, comprising: at least one electric propulsion unit; at least one sensor configured to measure at least one aircraft condition; and at least one flight control computer configured to dynamically vary at least one torque command to the at least one electric propulsion unit based at least on the at least one aircraft condition; wherein the at least one electric propulsion unit is configured to generate thrust based on the at least one dynamically varied torque command.

Aspects of this present disclosure relate to systems and methods for dynamically moving graphical elements of a user interface of a flight control system. In one, a method is disclosed comprising: determining aircraft authority limits based on at least one state signal indicating an aircraft state, wherein the aircraft authority limits indicate an extent to which one or more control signals can command the aircraft; determining one or more proximities between the aircraft state and the determined aircraft authority limits; and automatically moving the graphical elements of the user interface to one or more positions on the user interface based on the determined one or more proximities.

Aerial vehicles may include propulsion units having motors with drive shafts that may be aligned at a variety of orientations, propellers with variable pitch blades, and common operators for aligning the drive shafts at one or more orientations and for varying the pitch angles of the blades. The common operators may include plate elements to which a propeller hub is rotatably joined, and which may be supported by one or more linear actuators that may extend or retract to vary both the orientations of the drive shafts and the pitch angles of the blades. Operating the motors and propellers at varying speeds, gimbal angles or pitch angles enables the motors to generate forces in any number of directions and at any magnitudes. Attributes of the propulsion units may be selected in order to shape or control the noise generated thereby.

A method for controlling a propeller of an aircraft, comprises receiving, with a processor, one or more signals indicative of commanded collective pitch of the propeller; receiving, with the processor, one or more sensed signals indicative of propeller axial speed, propeller rotational speed, and air density; estimating, with the processor, a propeller torque and propeller thrust from one or more of the propeller axial speed, the propeller rotational speed, and the air density; determining, with the processor, information indicative of an error value between a desired torque and a measured torque in the propeller; determining, with the processor, information indicative of a corrected pitch command in response to the determining of the error value; combining, with the processor, the corrected pitch command with the propeller rotational speed into an adjustment solution; providing, with the processor, the propeller with the adjustment solution.

The present disclosure is generally related to aircraft having one or more unducted fan propulsors at locations within specific regions relative to an airfoil, such as a wing or horizontal stabilizer. More specifically, the specific regions are located where there is a relatively higher pressure air flow beneath the wings or above a horizontal stabilizer. That higher pressure air flow can be utilized to provide increased thrust from the unducted fan propulsor.

Provided is a system for controlling an RPM of a propeller and a rotor of a flight vehicle having multiple power units including: a collective pitch angle command generating unit generating a collective pitch angle command upon receiving a thrust control command from a pilot or an automatic controller; a disturbance factor compensating unit for generating an RPM compensation electronic speed control (ESC) command for compensating for an RPM error, and an electronic speed adjustment command generating unit generating a final ESC command upon receiving a collective command input or derived in the process of generating the collective pitch angle command by the collective pitch angle command generating unit and the RPM compensation ESC command generated by the disturbance factor compensating unit. RPMs of motors of a flight vehicle having a plurality of propellers and rotors may be maintained to be the same.

A pitch change mechanism for an aircraft engine includes a unison ring, a plurality of crankshafts coupled to the unison ring and configured to receive a plurality of blades, an inner shaft coupled to the plurality of crankshafts and the unison ring, and an actuator cylinder and an actuator piston. The actuator cylinder is coupled to the inner shaft and is configured to move relative to the actuator piston along a longitudinal axis of the pitch change mechanism. Movement of the actuator cylinder relative to the actuator piston is transferred to a rotation of each of the plurality of crankshafts around a longitudinal axis of each of the plurality of crankshafts to change a pitch of the plurality of blades.

A method of operating a variable pitch propeller system for an aircraft. The method includes: receiving aircraft flight information; performing a virtual pitch calculation to determine a virtual propeller pitch or virtual blade angle from the aircraft flight information; and performing a pitch protection process in response to low virtual propeller pitch or virtual blade angle being determined.