Aircraft

FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates to a mounting structure in an aircraft, especially to a transducer mounting structure used for mounting a transducer in a vertical tail of the aircraft.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It has been well known that a rudder for implementing the control of orientation of the aircraft in horizontal direction is disposed in a vertical tail of an aircraft. For accurately sensing and controlling a horizontal angle of the rudder, a transducer is provided in the manner of being mounted on a fitting of the vertical tail so as to sense the horizontal angle of the rudder in real time and transmit it to a control system of the aircraft, thereby accurate control of rudder can be achieved.

As shown in Fig.l, a vertical tail is located in the rear portion of a conventional aircraft. A rudder 2 shown in Fig.2 is mounted in the vertical tail 1. Fig.3 shows a conventional mounting bracket for rudder transducer 3, which comprises a transducer rod mounting portion 31 and a mounting flange 32 formed horizontally. As shown in Fig.4, the transducer rod mounting portion 31 is pivotally connected to a rod 41 of the transducer 4, and the mounting flange 32 is used to fix the mounting bracket 3 to an upper lug 51 of the fitting 5 in the vertical tail via screw fasteners, so that transducer 4 is capable of moving with respect to mounting bracket 3. In this conventional mounting configuration, since the gap LI between the upper lug 51 and lower lug 52 of the vertical tail is only about 29mm, besides the vertical distance L2 between the transducer rod mounting portion 31 and the horizontally configured mounting flange 32 is only about 48mm, there is insufficient space for drilling tools and mounting tools to perform drilling and mounting operation when fixing the mounting bracket, thus the conventional mounting structure is not convenient and causes a low efficiency/productivity.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of this invention is to eliminate the above shortcomings of the conventional technique, and provide a novel transducer mounting structure which is convenient to mount without compromise in mounting strength.

To accomplish the above object, a transducer mounting structure for a vertical tail of an aircraft is provided in an embodiment of this invention, which comprises a mounting bracket which includes a transducer rod mounting portion extending outwardly from a body of the mounting bracket, the transducer rod mounting portion being pivotally connected to a rod of a transducer, and a mounting flange extending outwardly from the body of the mounting bracket, the mounting flange being secured to a fitting of the vertical tail; wherein said mounting flange extends outwardly in an approximately vertical direction, and is secured to a side surface of a stiff ener of the fitting.

Preferably, said mounting flange is formed in an substantially triangle shape by expanding laterally while extending in the vertical direction, and the portion of the stiffener which fits with the mounting flange is formed in the corresponding shape.

Preferably, a plurality of mounting holes are formed in the mounting flange, and corresponding through holes are formed in the stiffener, the mounting flange being secured to the stiffener by a plurality of screw fasteners passing through said mounting holes and said through holes. Preferably, the central area of the mounting flange where the mounting holes are formed recesses by a certain distance with respect to the periphery thereof such that heads of the screw fasteners would not expose outside of the mounting flange when the screw fastener is mounted.

Preferably, one end of the rod is pivotally connected to the transducer rod mounting portion via a first hinge, and the other end thereof is pivotally connected to said transducer via a second hinge.

Preferably, the mounting flange is secured to the stiffener of the fitting by riveting.

Preferably, the side surface of the stiffener where the mounting bracket is secured faces away an adjacent stiffener.

Preferably, the side surface of the stiffener where the mounting bracket is secured faces an adjacent stiffener.

In comparison with the conventional technique, this invention has following advantageous effect: a spacious mounting space is achieved thanks to the vertically formed mounting flange of the mounting bracket which thus can be secured to the stiffener vertically, thereby no intervention between the tools and other components will occur during the operation of drilling hole and fastening screw fasteners, and productivity can be improved significantly.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig.l shows a rear portion of an aircraft with a vertical tail;

Fig.2 show a rudder provided in the vertical tail;

Fig.3 shows a conventional transducer mounting bracket; Fig.4 show transducer mounting configuration by use of the conventional transducer mounting bracket;

Fig.5 a transducer mounting bracket according to an embodiment of the invention;

Fig.6 show transducer mounting configuration by use of the transducer mounting bracket according to the embodiment of the invention; and

Fig.7 is the transducer mounting configuration of Fig.6 viewed in another point of view.

Numerals in figures:

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Below embodiments of this invention are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Fig.5 shows a transducer mounting bracket 6 according to an embodiment of this invention. Fig.6 shows transducer mounting configuration by use of the transducer mounting bracket 6 according to the embodiment of the invention. As shown in Fig.5, the transducer mounting bracket 6 comprises a transducer rod mounting portion 61 extending outwardly from a body of the transducer mounting bracket 6 in approximately horizontal direction and used for pivotally connecting to a transducer rod 41, and a mounting flange 62 extending in approximately vertical direction from the body of the mounting bracket 6. The mounting flange 62 is formed with a plurality of mounting holes 64 (three in this embodiment).

As shown in Fig.6, the mounting flange 6 is fixed on the fitting 5 of the vertical tails 1. More specifically, the fitting 5 is formed with an upper lug 51, a lower lug 52 and a stiffener 53 for enhancing the strength of the fitting 5, the stiffener 53 is approximately perpendicular to the upper lug 51 and lower lug 52 of the fitting 5. The vertically formed mounting flange 62 of the mounting bracket 6 is fixed to a side surface of the stiffener 53, thus the unique vertical mounting configuration of this invention is achieved. Generally, there are two stiff eners 53 in each fitting 5. To achieve maximum mounting space, the mounting bracket 6 is secured to such a side surface of the stiffener which is not facing the other adjacent stiffener.

With above configuration of the embodiment of this invention, since one side of the side surface of the stiffener 53 where the mounting bracket 6 is mounted is an open space, drilling tools and mounting tools would not intervene with other components during the process of drilling the through holes and mounting the bracket 6. Thus the configuration facilitates the operation of mounting the transducer significantly, and improves greatly the productivity in terms of drilling holes and mounting screw fasteners 63.

On the other hand, it can be readily envisaged that mounting bracket 63 may be mounted on the other side surface of the stiffener 53 which faces the other adjacent stiffener, since the distance between two adjacent stiffeners 53 is far greater than the gap between the upper and lower fitting lug 51 and 52.

The stiffener 53 is provided with a plurality of through holes (not shown) corresponding to the mounting holes of the mounting flange. The mounting bracket 6 is secured to one side of the stiffener 53 by a plurality of screw fastener 63 passing through the mounting holes 64 and the through holes.

As can be seen from Fig.6, a transducer 4 and a transducer rod 41 are components to be mounted. In the mounted configuration, the transducer rod 41 is pivotally connected at one end thereof to the transducer rod mounting portion 61 via a first hinge 42 and is pivotally connected at the other end thereof to the transducer 4 via a second hinge 44.

Preferably, the mounting flange 62 is formed in approximate triangle shape by expanding itself laterally while extending vertically. The portion of the stiffener 53 which fits with the mounting flange 62 has corresponding shape, facilitating the attachments of the mounting bracket while ensuring high structure strength.

Desirably, the central area of the mounting flange 62 where the mounting holes 64 are formed recesses by a certain distance with respect to the periphery of thereof, so that heads of the screw fastener 63 would not expose outside of the mounting bracket 6 when being mounted into the mounting holes 64. While the mounting bracket 6 can be secured to the fitting 5 by screw fastener, persons skilled in this art may use other conventional fixing means, such as riveting. In addition, the number of the fastener is not limited to three, but can be any number capable of ensuring connecting strength.

The detailed description of the embodiments as described above is illustrative, and is not intended to limit this invention. Any modification and improvement that can be made by persons skilled in the art without involving creative effort falls within the scope of this invention as defined by the claims appended.