Helicopter Main Rotor Blades

[choplifter]

I am trying to find information on past and present manufacturing methods of Helicopter main rotor blades. If anyone can direct me to some different sources or pass along some information, it would be greatly apprecciated

 

As far as current methods I don't know, but when I was 18 (I'm now 42)I started in a machine shop milling the inside and out side configuration of the leading edge of Bell Huey Blades. If you would like more information I can elaborate but, I dont know if this is the direction your interested in.

 

The most up to date rotor blades (main and tail) are built from composite materials such as fibre glass, carbon fibre and Kevlar. Wet lay up processes with multi layer constuction are used, cured in long autoclaves. (This is NOT, of course, to belittle the milled aluminium section blades to which Teelave refers, which are still the majority in use today.)<br><br>These blades, though expensive, give longer service life and with the inclusion of the &quot;BERP&quot; tip (British Experimental Rotor Program) can out perform the convetional blade length for length, or give equal performance with a substatially shorter blade. This is naturally important to <br>the ship based helicopter where space restrictions and a blade fold capability are required.<br><br>For more information visit <A HREF="

http://www.gkn-whl.co.uk"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.gkn-whl.co.uk</A>,

click on Manufacturing Services and then Upgrades&Modifications.<br>Best regards.

 

[1blessed]

Hi Teelave
We are interested in the milling of the huey
leading edges.
We are interested in building a set for a light helicopter.
We can buy the spars made of extruded 6061-T3, but would like to know if it is possible to mill our own.
1blessed