A hydraulically adjustable propeller assembly for an aircraft, a land vehicle or a water craft, includes an engine, a propeller unit having a propeller which comprises at least two propeller blades whose pitch is hydraulically settable, a pressure control unit which predetermines a fluid pressure for setting the pitch of the propeller blades and which is hydraulically connected to a pressure chamber of the propeller via a control line, and a pump unit which supplies a hydraulic fluid which is under a base pressure to the pressure control unit. The pump unit is a unit driven independently of the engine and the pressure control unit and includes at least one electrically operated main pump which supplies the hydraulic fluid which is under the base pressure for the pressure control unit.

An hydraulic actuation control module is provided for installation in a pitch change actuator of a propeller assembly. The module comprises a flow metering valve arranged to supply hydraulic fluid flow and pressure to an actuator and an electronic control unit arranged to control the flow metering valve. The flow metering valve is arranged to meter hydraulic fluid flow and pressure to increase and decrease pitch chambers of the pitch change actuator, in accordance with the control of the electronic control unit. The flow metering valve is arranged to receive an hydraulic fluid supply from an entity relative to which the propeller assembly rotates such as an engine driving the propeller assembly or aircraft on which the propeller assembly is installed. A propeller assembly comprising the hydraulic actuation control module is also disclosed, together with a method of installing the module within a propeller assembly.

A control system (10) for controlling the pitch of a propeller (50), the system comprising a propeller shaft (60), a blade swivel device (20) having a rotary control element (22) suitable for placing the blades (52) in an angular position corresponding to a desired propeller pitch, and a transmission (12) presenting an outlet member coupled in rotation with the rotary control element (22) of the blade swivel device (20).

The transmission (12) includes a variable speed drive (70) having drive, control, and outlet rotors that are coupled in rotation respectively with the propeller shaft (60), with a control member, and with the outlet member of the transmission.

By means of the variable speed drive (70), the speed of rotation of the outlet member of the transmission is a predetermined function of the speeds of rotation not only of the propeller shaft, but also of the control member.

A pitch control system configured to vary a pitch angle of at least one of a plurality of propeller blades of a propeller system is provided including a switch movable between a neutral position and a plurality of non-neutral positions. Movement of the switch to a first non-neutral position generates a command to move the propeller blades in a first direction. Movement of the switch to a second non-neutral position generates a command to move the propeller blades in a second direction. Movement of the switch to a third non-neutral position generates a command to move the propeller blades to a zero thrust position.

The present disclosure provides a method and system for determining a helicopter rotor airfoil. The method includes: randomly generating a sample point by using a Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) method (S1); determining characterization equations of upper and lower airfoil surfaces of an airfoil based on the airfoil sample point by using a class shape transformation (CST) method (S2); performing dynamic characteristic simulation on the airfoil according to the characterization equations of the upper and lower airfoil surfaces by using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method, to obtain a flow field characteristic of the airfoil (S3); establishing a mapping relationship between the sample point and the flow field characteristic by using a Kriging model, and training the mapping relationship by using a maximum likelihood estimation method and an expected improvement (EI) criterion, to obtain a trained mapping relationship (S4); determining an optimal sample point based on the trained mapping relationship by using Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) (S5); and determining a rotor airfoil based on the optimal sample point (S6). The method performs optimized design on aerodynamic characteristics of the airfoil in a state with a changing incoming flow and a changing angle of attack, and can effectively alleviate dynamic stall in this state.

A blade pitch control assembly includes a pitch control actuator having a coarse actuator chamber having a coarse chamber area and a fine actuator chamber having a fine chamber area. The coarse chamber area is biased to a feather position. The assembly also includes a primary pitch control valve configured to control the flow of pressurised fluid to the coarse actuator chamber and the fine actuator chamber, respectively via a coarse fluid line and a fine fluid line. The assembly further includes a hydraulic protection system located between the actuator and the primary pitch control valve, configured to bypass the primary pitch actuator in response to a trigger. The hydraulic protection system has a hydraulic protection system valve located between the fluid lines and when activated fluidly connects the fluid lines to balance fluid pressure between the coarse chamber and the fine chamber.

A propeller hydraulic actuation system, includes a double-acting dual chamber hydraulic pitch change actuator. The pitch change actuator includes a first pressure circuit having first fluid supply lines and a first hydraulic chamber and a second pressure circuit having second fluid supply lines and a second hydraulic chamber. A piston separates the first and second chambers. At least one pressure sensor is provided for obtaining pressure measurements from which a load differential (F) applied to the piston by the circuits can be calculated. A closed loop controller is arranged to control the fluid supplied to the first and second pressure circuits, wherein the closed loop controller includes an actuator position loop arranged to utilise feedback on the actuator position to control the actuator position.

A propeller hydraulic actuation system, includes a double-acting dual chamber hydraulic pitch change actuator. The pitch change actuator includes a first pressure circuit having first fluid supply lines and a first hydraulic chamber and a second pressure circuit having second fluid supply lines and a second hydraulic chamber. A piston separates the first and second chambers. At least one pressure sensor is provided for obtaining pressure measurements from which a load differential (F) applied to the piston by the circuits can be calculated. A closed loop controller is arranged to control the fluid supplied to the first and second pressure circuits, wherein the closed loop controller includes an actuator position loop arranged to utilise feedback on the actuator position to control the actuator position.

The variable pitch propeller control system can have a source of adjustable, actuation hydraulic pressure, a feather valve openable to provide an actuation path of the actuation hydraulic pressure between the source and the actuator, and closeable to connect the actuator to a drain below the actuation hydraulic pressure and close the actuator path, and a bypass path parallel to the actuator path, the bypass path having a restricted flow area relative to a flow area of the actuator path.

The present disclosure describes a propeller control unit for controlling the blade pitch of a propeller. The unit includes an electrohydraulic servo valve (“EHSV”) and is connected to a propeller actuator that adjusts the blade pitch of a propeller. The EHSV operates to allow pressurized fluid to flow from a pressurized fluid source to the actuator to adjust the blade pitch of the propeller in a flight pitch range and a ground pitch range, to allow pressurized fluid to flow from the source to the actuator to adjust the blade pitch of the propeller in a flight pitch range but not a ground pitch range, and to block the flow of pressurized fluid from the source to the actuator and drain pressurized fluid from the actuator to prevent adjustment of the blade pitch of the propeller in the flight pitch range or the ground pitch range.