US 12,344,365 B1
Electric propulsor with folding propeller
Felipe Bohorquez, Cambridge, MA (US); and Francesco Giannini, Falls Church, VA (US)
Assigned to The Boeing Company, Arlington, VA (US)
Filed by THE BOEING COMPANY, Arlington, VA (US)
Filed on Apr. 26, 2024, as Appl. No. 18/648,157.
Int. Cl. B64C 27/50 (2006.01); B64C 11/28 (2006.01); B64C 27/54 (2006.01)
CPC B64C 11/28 (2013.01) [B64C 27/50 (2013.01); B64C 27/54 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An electric propulsor, comprising:
a propeller having a hub and blades extending from the hub, the blades being movable along respective flapping axes between a deployed position and a stowed position;
a motor coupled with the hub and arranged to rotatably drive the propeller;
an actuator;
a clevis having opposing arms that each define complementary slots, wherein the actuator has a control arm that is received between the opposing arms and that has a pin slidably received within the complementary slots;
one or more processors; and
one or more non-transitory memory devices storing instructions, which, when executed by any combination of the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:
receive an input indicating an azimuthal position of the blades;
control the motor to align the blades with a target azimuthal position based at least in part on the input; and
with the blades of the propeller arranged at the target azimuthal position, cause the actuator to translate a control rod coupled thereto and with the hub to actively fold or unfold the blades along the respective flapping axes of the blades.