Swashplate (aeronautics)

This article is about the swashplate in helicopters. For a link prevents the inner swash from rotating independently
general description of the mechanism, see swashplate.
of the blades, which would apply torque to the actuators. The outer swashplate typically has an anti-rotation
A swashplate is a device that translates input via the slider as well to prevent it from rotating. Both swashplates
tilt up and down as one unit. The rotating swashplate is
helicopter ight controls into motion of the main rotor
blades. Because the main rotor blades are spinning, the connected to the pitch horns by the pitch links. Alternative mechanics to the stationary (outer) swashplate are
swashplate is used to transmit three of the pilots commands from the non-rotating fuselage to the rotating rotor the hexapod and the universal joint. Swashplates for helicopters having two rotors mounted on the same shaft are
hub and mainblades.
much more complex than the single rotor helicopters.

2 Cyclic blade control

Cyclic controls are used to change a helicopters roll and
pitch. Push rods or hydraulic actuators tilt the outer
swashplate in response to the pilots commands. The
swashplate moves in the intuitively expected direction,
tilting forwards to respond to a forward input, for instance. However pitch links on the blades transmit the
pitch information way ahead of the blades actual position, giving the blades time to y up or y down to
reach the desired position, in addition to a 90 degrees advance to account for the gyroscopic precession. That is,
to tilt the helicopter forward, the dierence of lift around
the blades should be maximum along the left-right plane,
creating a torque that, due to the gyroscopic eect, will
tilt the rotor disc forward and not sideways.

Swashplate on a radio-controlled helicopter

1 Non-rotating outer ring (blue)
2 Turning inner ring (silver)
3 Ball joint
4 Control (pitch) preventing turning of outer ring
5 Control (roll)
6 Linkages (silver) to the rotor blade

3 Collective blade control

To control the collective pitch of the main rotor blades,
the entire swashplate must be moved up or down along
its axis without changing the orientation of the cyclic
controls. Conventionally, the entire swashplate is moved
along the mainshaft by a separate actuator. However,
some newer model helicopters remove this mechanically
complex separation of functionalities by using three interdependent actuators that can each move the entire swashplate. This is called cyclic/collective pitch mixing.

Assembly

The swashplate consists of two main parts: a stationary swashplate and a rotating swashplate. The stationary
(outer) swashplate is mounted on the main rotor mast and
is connected to the cyclic and collective controls by a series of pushrods. It is able to tilt in all directions and move
vertically. The rotating (inner) swashplate is mounted to
the stationary swashplate by means of a bearing and is allowed to rotate with the main rotor mast. An anti-rotation

4 Animations
Swash plate in the resting position.
A raised swashplate causing negative collective
blade pitch and thus down-force. Note that the con1

6
trol arms are on the trailing side of the blades, causing the raised swashplate to decrease the blade pitch.
A tilted swashplate giving cyclic blade control. Note
the change in pitch of the blades during rotation.

History

The swashplate was originally proposed by Russian Boris

Yuryev in 1911, though he did not use it on his rst helicopter of 1912.[1]
Pescara helicopters (191930) are coaxial rotors helicopters, each rotor being controlled by a swashplate (oscillating bearing) driven by the rst control stick for helicopter (UK 178,452 Improvement in or relating to Joy
Sticks for helicopters. Convention date in Spain: April
12, 1921).
French engineer and helicopter precursor Etienne
Oehmichen led an application to patent a swashplate
device on June 18, 1926 in France and later in the U.S.
(August 12, 1929).[2]
Today, on most modern aircraft the swashplate is above
the transmission and the pushrods are visible outside the
fuselage, but a few early designs, notably light helicopters
built by Enstrom Helicopter, placed it underneath the
transmission and enclosed the rotating pushrods inside
the mainshaft. This reduces rotor hub drag since there
are no exposed linkages.
Other swashplate and control design have been used. For
instance, Kaman Aircraft helicopters do not use a traditional swashplate and instead operate servo aps on the
rotor blades to adjust the angle of attack of the blades.

References

[1] Principles of Helicopter Aerodynamics. J. Gordon Leishman, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2002 p13
[2] E. hmichen : Lifting Device - Google Patents

REFERENCES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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Swashplate (aeronautics) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swashplate_(aeronautics)?oldid=676214828 Contributors: Ewlloyd, Lumos3, Panther, FatTux, Soupisgoodfood, Pearle, Hooperbloob, Dave.Dunford, Stemonitis, Isnow, Liface, GraemeLeggett, Arnero, YurikBot, Hornandsoccer, NawlinWiki, Hirudo, SmackBot, Eskimbot, Zephyris, Hmains, Krallja, Benet Allen, Autopilot, DeQuibbler, Fl295,
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