SH-60B Seahawk Automatic Blade Fold System

A fully automatic blade fold system employing electromechanics has been developed at Sikorsky Aircraft for installation on the SH-60B SEAHAWK helicopter. This helicopter is a 20,000 pound gross weight vehicle designed for the Navy for use in anti-submarine warfare and anti ship surveillance and targeti.ng. Historically, blade folding at Sikorsky has been accomplished hydraulically. However, during the early SEAHAWK planning, a review of Navy fleet blade fold system R&M data clearly indicated that a substantial increase in reliability could be realized by going to a simpler, more compact electric blade fold system, eliminating the maintenance and improving availability associated with the hydraulic system. This system provides automatic rotor indexing, automatic positioning and locking of the rotor blade pitch change components at the rotor head, automatic blade fold unlocking and automatic blade folding and and spreading.