The present invention includes an anti-torque assembly for a helicopter comprising a plurality of fixed blade pitch motors mounted on one or more pivots on the tail boom of the helicopter, wherein the plurality of fixed blade pitch motors on the one or more pivots are adapted to be oriented substantially in-plane with a tail boom of a helicopter during a first mode of operation that comprises a hover mode and wherein the fixed blade pitch motors are adapted to be oriented substantially off-plane from the tail boom of the helicopter during a second mode of helicopter operation that is different from the first mode.

An aircraft includes an airframe having an empennage, a counter rotating, coaxial main rotor assembly located at the airframe including an upper rotor assembly and a lower rotor assembly, and a translational thrust system positioned at the empennage and providing translational thrust to the airframe. At least two control surfaces located at the empennage are independently operable via commands from one or more flight control computers. A method of operating an aircraft includes transmitting a first signal from one or more flight control computers to a first control surface located at a first lateral side of a translational thrust system, and actuating the first control surface to a first position via the first signal. A second signal is transmitted to a second control surface located at a second lateral side opposite the first lateral side, and the second control surface is actuated to a second position via the second signal.

An aircraft includes an airframe having an extending tail, a counter rotating, coaxial main rotor assembly disposed at the airframe including an upper rotor assembly and a lower rotor assembly and a translational thrust system positioned at the extending tail and providing translational thrust to the airframe. A flight control computer is configured to control a main rotor rotational speed of the upper and the lower rotor assemblies of the main rotor assembly as a function of airspeed of the aircraft. A method of operating an aircraft includes retrieving a threshold main rotor rotational speed of the dual coaxial main rotor assembly and calculating an actual main rotor rotational speed according to an environment of the aircraft. The actual main rotor rotational speed is maintained to remain at or below the threshold main rotor speed according to an airspeed of the aircraft.

A flying passenger rotor lifted vehicle that is capable of taking off and landing vertically, that is relatively light-weight, has responsive control, and increased safety against failure of propulsion/thrust systems. The flying vehicle can include a body having a tail section, a central thrust unit arranged along the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, at a distance from the rotation axis of the main rotor, a mounting support on either side of the body, and a side thrust unit mounted to each mounting support. The central thrust unit includes a fan which provides air flow with a flow component perpendicular to a virtual vertical midplane of the vehicle. Each of the side thrust units includes a fan which provides air flow with a flow component parallel to the virtual vertical midplane. At least one of the thrust units has controllable air deflection to deflect the corresponding output air flow in a controllable manner.

The present invention includes a system and method for slowing the rotation of a rotor using, for example, rotor brake system for a rotorcraft comprising: one or more generators connected to a main rotor gearbox; an electric distributed anti-torque system mounted on a tail boom of the rotorcraft comprising two or more electric motors connected to the one or more generators, wherein the two or more electric motors are connected to one or more blades; and wherein a rotation of the rotor is slowed by placing a drive load on the main rotor gearbox with the one or more generators to bleed the mechanical power from rotor into electrical power via the two or more electric motors, wherein the electric distributed anti-torque system generates thrust in opposing directions.

The aircraft includes a fuselage, an engine disposed in the fuselage, an exhaust outlet provided at a tail of the fuselage for discharging exhaust gas from the engine to the outside, and a cruise rotor positioned rearward of the exhaust outlet and generating horizontal thrust on the fuselage. The exhaust outlet and the cruise rotor do not overlap each other when viewed from the direction in which the exhaust gas is discharged.

An aircraft includes an airframe with an upper portion and an extending tail, a counter-rotating, coaxial main rotor assembly disposed at the upper portion of the airframe, a translational thrust system, including a propeller, disposed at the extending tail of the airframe and a flight control system configured to control at least one of revolutions-per-minute (RPM) and pitch of the propeller of the translational thrust system in response to an input speed or acceleration command.

The present invention includes a rotor hub system, comprising: a teetering rotor hub disposed about a mast, the teetering rotor hub comprising: a first and a second yoke; each connected to a set of rotor blades, wherein the second set of rotor blades and the first set of rotor blades are disposed in a common plane, but the first and the second yoke do not come in contact.

A control member that is operable by a pilot to vary thrust from a thrust system of an aircraft. The control member comprises a stick and a movable assembly including a grip. The grip is linked to the stick via a helical link, rotation of the grip about the stick giving rise to movement in translation of the grip together with the movable assembly along the stick, the grip being movable in translation in both a first direction in translation and in a second direction in translation that is opposite to the first direction in translation.

Various implementations directed to an aircraft thermal management system are provided. In one implementation, an aircraft may include a fuselage having one or more fuselage sections. The aircraft may also include one or more electric motors configured to drive one or more propulsion systems of the aircraft, where the one or more electric motors are configured to generate thermal energy. The aircraft may further include an aircraft thermal management system configured to transfer the thermal energy generated by the one or more electric motors to the one or more fuselage sections.