Development of a Span-Extending Blade Tip System for a Reconfigurable Helicopter Rotor

†‡ This work, conducted under the System Concept Definition phase of the Mission Adaptive Rotor Program, presents the design and validation results for a morphing helicopter rotor blade with an active blade tip, which can increase its active span by 100%, while maintaining a constant chord, effectively doubling the active airfoil area. The technology components include a morphing honeycomb-like structure that has a Poisson’s ratio of zero as it extends and an elastomer-matrix-composite skin that is bonded to the core structure. Design analyses are presented, along with experimental validation testing on hardware specimens. Feasibility of the design has been demonstrated in terms of hardware fabrication methods and overall performance to satisfy system requirements.

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