Flying control device for a rotorcraft

• US 8,052,097 B2
• Filed: 04/03/2007
• Issued: 11/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Helicopters
• Original Assignee: Eurocopter
• Inventors: Rollet, Philippe
• Primary Examiner(s): Dinh; Tien
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bonzell; Philip J
• Application Number:
  US11/730,656
• Publication Number:
  US 20070235593A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,680 Days
• Field of Search: 244/220, 244/221, 244/229, 244/230, 244/237
• US Class Current: 244/229
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 27/56 characterised by the control initiating means, e.g. manually actuated
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 43/00 Arrangements or adaptations of instruments arrangements of cameras B64D47/08; aeronautical measuring instruments per se G01C
• CPC Class Codes: G05G 13/00 Manually-actuated control mechanisms provided with two or more controlling members and also two or more controlled members interlocking G05G5/08
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 50/40 Weight reduction

Abstract

The invention relates to a rotorcraft cockpit having a left seat and a right seat placed side-by-side, a console extending between the seats, two side sticks, one situated to the right of the right seat and the other situated to the left of the left seat, enabling the pilot to control roll and pitch; a flight control system comprising sensors associated with the side sticks and a computer connected to the sensors serves to convert the orders applied by the pilot to the side sticks into signals for controlling actuators in order to vary roll and pitch; a piloting relationship integrated in the computer stabilizes the response of the rotorcraft in roll and in pitch when a side stick is actuated, and maintains the attitudes in roll and pitch at reference values when neither side stick is actuated.

Claims

1. A rotorcraft including at least a main lift and propulsion rotor and a cockpit comprising:

a left seat and a right seat placed side-by-side and having respective axes for their installation in the cockpit that are spaced apart by a spacing;

a central console extending at least in part in the spacing between the seats; and

two side sticks enabling the pilot and the copilot to control roll and cyclic pitch;

the rotorcraft including a flight control system having sensors associated with the side sticks and at least one computer connected to the sensors and converting the orders applied by the pilot to the side sticks into electrical or optical signals for controlling actuators associated with the rotor in order to vary roll and cyclic pitch;

wherein;

one of the side sticks is situated to the right of the right seat and the other side stick is situated to the left of the left seat;

at least one piloting relationship integrated in the computer stabilizes the response of the rotorcraft in roll and in cyclic pitch when a side stick is actuated and maintains the roll and cyclic pitch attitudes at reference values when neither side stick is actuated; and

the cockpit includes two members for controlling collective pitch and engine power, the members being coupled together mechanically or electrically, one of the members being situated to the left of the right seat and the other being situated to the right of the left seat, the two members for controlling collective pitch being located between the central console and, respectively, the left seat and the right seat;

while said central console, left and right seat, the two side sticks and the two members for controlling collective pitch being disposed symmetrically in the cockpit.

2. The rotorcraft according to claim 1, in which a piloting relationship is arranged so that at low speeds the longitudinal and lateral actions on the side sticks control directly respectively the longitudinal and lateral speeds of the rotorcraft relative to the ground.

3. The rotorcraft according to claim 1, in which the members are two levers coupled together by a mechanical coupling structure of length that is less than the spacing.

4. The rotorcraft according to claim 1, in which the members are two active side sticks that are coupled together electrically.

5. The rotorcraft according to claim 1, in which the cockpit does not have a pedal unit and in which the two side sticks control roll, cyclic pitch, and yaw of the rotorcraft.

6. The rotorcraft according to claim 5, in which a piloting relationship on the yaw axis, and integrated in the computer, performs the following actions:

in stationary flight and at low speeds, the angular speed in yaw is proportional to the twisting action on the handgrip of the side stick, and in the absence of twisting action on the handgrip of the side stick, a speed in yaw of zero is maintained; and

in forward flight, the lateral g-force is proportional to the twisting action exerted on the handgrip of the side stick, and in the absence of twisting action on the handgrip of the side stick, a lateral g-force of zero is maintained.

7. The rotorcraft according to claim 1, wherein the cockpit has a pedal unit that controls yaw of the rotorcraft.

8. The rotorcraft according to claim 7, wherein a piloting relationship on the yaw axis, and integrated in the computer, performs the following actions:

in stationary flight and at low speeds, the angular speed in yaw is proportional to the twisting action on the handgrip of the side stick, and in the absence of twisting action on the handgrip of the side stick, a speed in yaw of zero is maintained; and

in forward flight, the lateral g-force is proportional to the twisting action exerted on the handgrip of the side stick, and in the absence of twisting action on the handgrip of the side stick, a lateral g-force of zero is maintained.