France, April 9 -- Project Id: 109064
Description: Twirling and tilting to lift and propel a new generation of civilian aircraft
Composite materials of high strength and stiffness are excellent candidates for aircraft drive shaft applications that transfer the torque from the engine to the rotor. However, damping in composites can be much greater than in most metals. In the "subcritical" speed range and at closer distances between components, this may not be an issue. In the supercritical regime of interest to applications involving longer distances as, for example, in helicopters and tilt rotors, it can lead to instabilities. The EU-funded STEADIEST project is developing two different architectures of a supercritical composite shaft driv...