US 11,720,123 B2
Airframe protection systems for use on rotorcraft
Marc Ouellet, Saint-Sophie (CA); Guillaume Biron, Blainville (CA); and Alexis Dugré, Boisbriand (CA)
Assigned to Textron Innovations Inc., Providence, RI (US)
Filed by Textron Innovations Inc., Providence, RI (US)
Filed on Dec. 1, 2020, as Appl. No. 17/108,704.
Prior Publication US 2022/0171409 A1, Jun. 2, 2022
Int. Cl. G05D 1/08 (2006.01); B64C 27/82 (2006.01); G05D 1/00 (2006.01)
CPC G05D 1/0808 (2013.01) [B64C 27/82 (2013.01); G05D 1/0066 (2013.01); B64C 2027/8209 (2013.01); B64C 2027/8227 (2013.01); B64C 2027/8254 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A yaw control system for a helicopter having an airframe including a tailboom comprising:
one or more tail rotors rotatably coupled to the tailboom, the one or more tail rotors having one or more operating parameters, each tail rotor including a plurality of tail rotor blades;
one or more load sensors coupled to at least one of the airframe or the tail rotor blades of the helicopter; and
a flight control computer implementing an airframe protection module, the airframe protection module comprising:
an airframe protection monitoring module configured to monitor one or more flight parameters of the helicopter, the airframe protection monitoring module including a load determination module configured to detect a load on the at least one of the airframe or the tail rotor blades of the helicopter using the one or more load sensors; and
an airframe protection command module configured to modify the one or more operating parameters of the one or more tail rotors based on the one or more flight parameters of the helicopter including the load detected by the load determination module, the airframe protection command module limiting anti-torque input from an operator of the helicopter when the load detected by the load determination module exceeds a load threshold, thereby protecting the airframe of the helicopter.