disco

This is the best i can do. The rotorblades are at the airstrip.
Also I'm pretty sure they are still in business.
hubbar.jpg

hubbar2.jpg

__________________
Beware the flying Horny Commander....Wah ha haar....

SamL

Wow Disco, they are the biggest set of cheek plates I've seen

__________________
-- Leonardo da Vinci --

Mitch

G'Day Disco,

I too think that McCutchens are no longer. The Americans will soon clarify that for you. Seem to recollect Dennis Fetter had some dealing and involvement with McCutcheons as he flew them on his earlier AirCommands.

Good Luck

Mitch.

SamL

Hi Graeme
Your humble ways, always make me smile

Sam

__________________
-- Leonardo da Vinci --

Bell430

There are quite a few heli's with glass fibre flexures in the heads... the AS350 family of eurocopter designs use a 'star flex' head which takes all flexing nodes of the rotor system but is not designed for the tensile loads.

The Bell 430 uses a fully composite head that takes all loads...

gbw

"Re: Hub bars
An additional problem with laminates is the connection to it."

Niquenaq,
Laminated glass makes it much stronger. So why not laminated metal? Metal/nomorenails/metal.

This would have the added advantage that if a crack started, it would only be in half the hub bar. The AD would thus be "Fly until one plate is cracked, then discard"

Graham

Scorpion

Hi Disco,

How many hours has the McCutchen Blades and Hub Bar done on your gyro.

I have heard some bad reports of them having fractures occuring with very few hours logged.

Has anyone else had anything to do with these Rotors and Hubs, I would like to hear your comments; good or bad

Graeme

Bell430

GBW,

There are a few examples of metal laminates out there.... Prior to elastomerics and composites, helicopters used 'packs' or 'straps' of thin stainless sheet as flexures (still do!), the H300 and H500 are perfect examples. These tension/torsion straps take all the flight loads of the rotor system and allow feathering (pitch change) of the blades.

One of the major problems with blending metal and composite is the differences in the elastic properties or bending nodes of both materials. One can handle more flexing than the other so there is a shear force within the laminates.... your 'nomorenails' would probably become brittle and crack with the numerous cycles too . Even tension/torsion straps have a huge shear force within the packs, they use extremely thin laminates to spread the load on the mounting bolts and allow for better flexing qualities as well as redundancy....

Sorry if I sound like a 'know it all', not my intention to put anyones ideas down..... far from it. The concept is a pretty old one though, and there are positives and negatives, as mentioned above. another issue I should mention is that the design of a hub bar is far different from a rotor hub... If you use laminates, there is also a possibility that the bar will be softer in plane... as the bar cones it will introduce a pitch moment as a result of the laminates being acted upon by the thrust/drag component. The blades could be extrememly eratic in flight as a result. The solid aluminium hub bar reduces this torsional twisting moment of the blades during each cycle... this is a good thing.

Anyway, good topic, don't stop thinking outside the box.. just bare in mind that any good idea that we come up with has usually been tried in some form or another before... but certainly worth looking at again if the reasons are good enough and the technology is there to support it.

Cheers

Paul

disco

Mine have probably done about 3-400 hours. They are a bit shabby but perform well. Everything I've heard about them makes me think they'd be the best option if i were to buy another set of blades again. They've got heaps of adjustments on them too.

__________________
Beware the flying Horny Commander....Wah ha haar....