A vehicle architecture and the associated method of operation for fixed wing aircraft transition from operation underwater to flight in air. More particularly, the vehicle architecture and method allows transition and long-range operation in both water and in air.

The method starts with the vehicle oriented for long range flight in water. The method is composed of a flight orientation change for high speed ascent by rolling over, then water ascent, tractor propeller transition, wing transition, pusher propeller transition, boundary layer flight, and air ascent. The vehicle will ascend in its highspeed water configuration. As the tractor propeller breaches the surface of the water it will change its pitch collectively to optimize for low speed operation in air. As the wings breach the surface of the water, they will increase in camber to optimize for low speed operation in air. The vehicle will change angle of attack to stay within the ground effect regime in air using firstly the submerged control surfaces. In ground regime flight the vehicle will accelerate and transition to high altitude low drag flight with optimally cambered wings.

A device for controlling the pitch of fan blades in a turbine engine having an unducted fan including at least one set of adjustable pitch fan blades, each fan blade being coupled, for pitch adjustment purposes, to a radial control shaft constrained to rotate with the set of fan blades and suitable for pivoting about a radial pitch axis of the fan blade, the device including a stationary actuator centered on a longitudinal axis of the turbine engine and driving an outer ring of a load transfer bearing in translation, the outer ring of the load transfer bearing being coupled directly to a lever arm of each control shaft via a respective ball joint connection in order to adjust its pivoting.

A propeller system has a pair of rotors and a pair of blade sets and at least one a drive input to drive a first of the rotors and blade sets and a second of the rotors and blade sets. The blade sets are positioned such that when both are driven, air will be driven across the first blade set and then across the second blade set. There is a pitch change mechanism to change an angle of incidence of the blade in at least one blade sets. There is a device for selectively stopping rotation of at least one of the first or second rotor and blade set while still allowing rotation of the other rotor and blade set. The pitch change mechanism of the stopped blade set can still change the angle of incidence when the device has stopped rotation. A method is also disclosed.

An aircraft capable of carrying at least 400 pounds of payload, has four rotors systems, each of the rotor systems being independently driven by an electric motor or other torque-producing source. Each of the rotor systems provide sufficient thrust such that the aircraft is capable of controlled vertical takeoff and landing, even if one of the variable pitch rotor is inoperable. An electronic control system is configured to control the rotational speed and pitch of at least one of the rotor systems in each of the first and second rotor pairs. The rotors may be arranged in coaxial stacks or may be otherwise configured.

A system includes a first mast torque transfer system, a second mast torque transfer system coupled to the first mast torque transfer system, and a torque limiting system. The torque limiting system includes a first sensor configured to determine a torque of the first mast torque transfer system, a second sensor configured to determine a torque of the second mast torque transfer system, and a processor configured to determine a differential torque between the torque of the first mast torque transfer system and the torque of the second mast torque transfer system and configured to control at least one of a torque input and a torque output to at least one of the first and second mast torque transfer systems as a function of the determined differential torque.

A system, including: a linear actuator axially arranged in a first propeller and rotatably secured thereto, a first linking mechanism connecting a rod of the linear actuator to a second propeller to change a setting of blades thereof, and including an intermediate bearing between the propellers, which is capable of transmitting translation of the rod of the linear actuator and disconnecting a rotatable link to the first propeller to make it possible to change the setting of the blades of the second propeller rotated in an opposite direction to the first propeller, and a second linking mechanism combined with blades of the first propeller to change a setting thereof.

An engine includes systems for changing the pitch of propeller blades, a system for an upstream propeller including a linear actuator and a transmission mechanism connecting the actuator to the blades to transform the sliding of the actuator into a rotation of the blades, the upstream propeller including a rotatable housing rigidly connected to a rotatable shaft supported in a static housing of the turbine engine by an upstream bearing and by a downstream bearing. The rotatable housing of the upstream propeller includes a support rigidly connected to the rotatable housing and surrounding the static housing. The actuator is annular and fixed outside to the support, the transfer mechanism includes connecting rods and rotatable radial arms traversing the gaseous flow path, and the downstream bearing is radially located between the static housing and the support.

A device for controlling pitch of fan blades of a turbine engine including an un-ducted fan, the device including: at least one set of fan blades of adjustable pitch, the set being constrained to rotate with a rotary ring centered on a longitudinal axis and mechanically connected to a turbine rotor, each blade of the set being mounted on a blade root support that is pivotally mounted on the rotary ring; and at least one radial control shaft adjusting pitch of at least two adjacent blades of the set, the control shaft being constrained to rotate with the rotary ring and being configured to pivot about an axis of the shaft, being coupled to the blade root supports of the at least two blades of the set to adjust their pitch via a transmission system including eccentrics connected together by at least one connecting rod.

The invention relates to a lubrication device for a turbine engine, comprising an oil intake pipe (23) provided with a pump (24) for supplying oil and control means (25) located downstream from the supply pump (24), a supply pipe (26) intended for supplying oil to a member to be lubricated and a recirculation pipe (27), the control means (25) making it possible to direct all or part of the flow of oil from the intake pipe (23) towards the supply pipe (26) and/or towards the recirculation pipe (27), the pump (24) being driven by at least one rotary member of an accessory gearbox of the turbine engine.

A hydraulic system for controlling orientation of fan blades in a turbine engine including at least one set of adjustable pitch fan blades actuated by actuators that are connected to a hydraulic pump, and a small pitch protection valve controlled by an associated solenoid valve to make it possible on the ground, when the orientation of the blades is substantially perpendicular to the axis of the turbine engine, to pass from a first operating zone in which a speed of pitch variation of the blades is low to a second operating zone in which a speed of pitch variation is considerably higher, wherein operating pressure of the hydraulic pump is controlled by the solenoid valve controlling the small pitch protection valve to define two outlet levels corresponding to the two operating zones.