Flight performance of helicopter tail rotors with extendable chord

Abstract

To investigate the potential of Statically and Dynamically Extendable Chord (SEC/DEC) in performance improvement of helicopter tail rotors, a prediction model of helicopter flight performance is developed and validated. It is suitable to deploy the SEC and DEC close to the blade tip for power reduction of tail rotor in hover and high-speed flight. The deployment locations of SEC and DEC for tail rotors are similar to that of main rotors. In hover, the deployment of the SEC and DEC results in little power reduction. From low to medium speed flight, the deployment of the DEC and SEC increases the power. In high-speed flight, the SEC and DEC can significantly decrease the power, especially at a large take-off weight. At 300 km/h, when the chord extension is 20% of blade chord, the SEC and DEC with 1/rev input decrease the power by 14.44% and 20.47% at a take-off weight coefficient of 0.0091. The DEC shows greater potential in power reduction than the SEC. There is an optimal phase input for the maximum power reduction, which does not vary with forward speed. For the DEC with 1/rev input, the optimal phase is [Formula: see text]. The optimal phase input for the maximum power reduction of tail rotors is different from that of main rotors.