An aircraft is provided including an airframe, an extending tail, and a counter rotating, coaxial main rotor assembly including an upper rotor assembly with a plurality of blades rotating in a first plane and a lower rotor assembly with a plurality of blades rotating in a second plane, each of the blades having a root end, a midpoint, and a tip end. A translational thrust system positioned at the extending tail, the translational thrust system providing translational thrust to the airframe. The blades of the upper rotor assembly and the blades of the lower rotor assembly are indexed to improve tip end clearance between pairs of tip ends in the crossing plane as the tip ends move in respective first and second sinusoidal paths.

An aircraft is provided including an airframe, an extending tail, and a counter rotating, coaxial main rotor assembly including an upper rotor assembly with an upper blade and a lower rotor assembly with a lower blade. A first antenna in one of upper blade and the lower blade, and a second antenna in the other of the upper blade and the lower blade. An oscillator to apply an excitation signal to the first antenna. A blade proximity monitor to monitor a magnitude of the excitation signal and an output signal from the second antenna to determine a distance between the upper blade and the lower blade.

A compound rotorcraft with a fuselage and at least one main rotor, the fuselage comprising a lower side and an upper side that is opposed to the lower side, the at least one main rotor being arranged at the upper side, wherein at least one propeller is provided and mounted to a fixed wing arrangement that is laterally attached to the fuselage, the fixed wing arrangement comprising at least one upper wing that is arranged at an upper wing root joint area provided at the upper side of the fuselage and at least one lower wing that is arranged at a lower wing root joint area provided at the lower side of the fuselage, the upper and lower wings being at least interconnected at an associated interconnection region.

A rotary wing aircraft comprising a fuselage, a cabin volume enclosed by the fuselage, a main rotor arranged above the fuselage, a tail rotor mounted on a tail, the tail being attached to a rear part of the fuselage supporting the tail at its rear end, whereas the tail includes two beam boom elements, one element extending at the port side and the other element extending at the starboard side of the rotary wing aircraft, the front root end of each element being hinged to the corresponding lateral side of the fuselage, and both elements being canted with respect to the longitudinal axis of the rotary wing aircraft so as to be interconnected to each other at the rear portion of the tail.

A strake may extend along a portion of an approaching side of a tail boom of a helicopter. A number of vortex generators (VGs) may extend along a portion of a retreating side of the tail boom. For tail booms with circular cross sections, the strake and the VGs are positioned between approximately 5 and 15 degrees below a horizontal plane of the tail boom when viewed end on, on respective sides of the tail boom. For tail booms with non-circular cross sections, the strake and the VGs is positioned between approximately 5 and 15 degrees above a location where a change in curvature is greatest (e.g., where flow separation would otherwise occur) on a bottom half of the tail boom when viewed end on, on respective sides of the tail boom. A fairing may be located on the retreating side on the upper half of the tail boom, to create an asymmetric profile.

A helicopter is described comprising a fuselage elongated along a first axis and extending between a nose and a tail boom; a tailplane with a pair of first aerodynamic surfaces elongated along a second axis; the first and second axis define a first plane; the helicopter comprises a pair of elements transversal to the first aerodynamic surfaces; and a pair of second aerodynamic surfaces generating respective second aerodynamic forces, connected to first elements, and facing and spaced from respective first aerodynamic surfaces; each second aerodynamic surface comprises one first root end connected to the respective said element, a second free end spaced from said tail boom, a first leading edge, a first trailing edge opposite to said first leading edge, a first chord at said first root end and a second chord at said second free end parallel to said first axis; the first and the second chord define a second plane tilted with respect to said first plane.

A vertical tail of a helicopter has a leading edge and a trailing edge concave toward the leading edge. The helicopter includes a main rotor and a tail rotor for generating anti-torque to cancel torque generated by rotation of the main rotor. The trailing edge is concave within a range within which the vertical tail overlaps a circular region, formed as a rotation range of the tail rotor, in a rotation axis direction of the tail rotor.

The present invention relates to a body (2) on the air vehicle; at least one motor (3) which provides required power for the flight of the body (2); at least one rotor (4) extending outward from the body (2), connected to the motor (3), and rotating around itself; a plurality of blades (5) located on the rotor (4); a helicopter mode (H) in which the body (2) performs tasks such as vertical landing and take-off, autorotation and hovering; an anti-torque system (6) on the body (2), which creates anti-torque when the body (2) is in helicopter mode (H); an airplane mode (A) in which the rotor (4) is stopped and the blades (5) are used as fixed wings; at least one propulsion system (7) that provides thrust for the movement of the body (2) when the body (2) is in airplane mode (A); a transition mode (T) in which the rotor (4) is stopped and the propulsion system (7) is activated while the body (2) is switched from helicopter mode (H) to airplane mode (A); at least one canard (8) located in the nose area of the body (2) and providing lift to the body (2).

A method of manufacturing a fiber reinforced composite component. The method comprises providing a pre-cured fiber reinforced composite support structure which comprises a flat area that merges at at least one associated transition area into at least one annexed curved area, wherein the at least one associated transition area comprises at least one slot adapted to provide bending flexibility to the at least one transition area; providing at least one uncured fiber reinforced composite element; and joining the at least one uncured fiber reinforced composite element to the pre-cured fiber reinforced composite support structure by a co-bonding process.