Chord Morphing for Helicopter Rotor Blades

Abstract

Since helicopter rotors have different demands from different flight stats, the final design is always a compromise between flight stats such as hover and fast forward flight. Two of the design parameters are twist and chord length. This paper is giving some reasoning from rotor simulations on what twist and chord length should look like in order to increase performance in hover or forward flight. The result is, that the inboard chord length should be much larger for hover than for forward flight. This paper is presenting a structural concept, that can enable a helicopter rotor blade to change its chord length.