Abstract: An inexpensive stall warning device for the instrument panel of an airplane or glider operates on the principle of balancing dynamic pressure against normal acceleration forces. It requires only static and pitot pressure inputs and electric power and employs a differential pressure transducer, MEMS rate gyros and accelerometers. These sensors will be monitored by a microprocessor to derive the aerodynamic states of the aircraft, thereupon issuing explicit display and vocal announcements to a pilot to prevent or guide recovery from a stall or spin state as well as overspeed or spiral dive.

Abstract: A rotor hub provides transfer of centrifugal force while permitting angular motion about a pitch axis, having an outer member and an enveloped concentric inner member with a hollow end part, the two members joined by two spaced radial bearings and each having two diametrically opposed windows that are aligned such that a beam transverse to the pitch axis passes through all four windows, transferring the centrifugal force from the outer member through a small elastomeric thrust bearing within the hollow part to an end cap of the inner member.

Abstract: Elastomeric bearings exhibit a reactive positive spring effect, i.e., they produce an opposing torque or force when angular displacement or translation is applied upon them, due to shear stress developed within their elastomer parts. The present invention incorporates a device that exhibits an increasingly strong torque or force in the same direction as the displacement, i.e., a negative spring, under similar conditions of movement. When properly calibrated, the subject type of device can be used in paralleled motion with the ordinary reactive elastomeric bearing to produce a combined effect in which at least a part of the torque or force of the elastomeric bearing is compensated or minimized over a range of movement, particularly in helicopter rotor blade retention applications.

Abstract: An inexpensive stall warning device for the instrument panel of an airplane or glider operates on the principle of balancing dynamic pressure against normal acceleration forces. It requires only static and pitot pressure inputs and electric power and employs a differential pressure transducer, MEMS rate gyros and accelerometers. These sensors will be monitored by a microprocessor to derive the aerodynamic states of the aircraft, thereupon issuing explicit display and vocal announcements to a pilot to prevent or guide recovery from a stall or spin state as well as overspeed or spiral dive.

Abstract: A rubber laminated bearing-seal, consisting of multiple flat or curved alternate laminations of metal and rubber bonded together and having an aperture, is seated in an apertured receptacle in the wall of a pressure vessel and supports a shaft that penetrates the apertures, extending from one side of the wall through to the other side. Shear strains in the rubber laminations permit the shaft to carry limited movements through the wall while the laminations seal against any flow of the liquid or gaseous medium on one side toward the other side and withstand the resulting thrust caused by large pressure differences. The torque reaction of this bearing-seal is essentially proportional to rotation angle. A potential use is in the intense hydrostatic pressure environment of undersea applications at great depths, carrying limited motion through the hull of a submersible craft.

Abstract: A bar code configuration which may be molded in the sidewall of a tire and has even surface portions and uneven surface portions for selectively reflecting light from a light source toward a receiving sensor to define bars of a bar code. The uneven surface portions may have grooves or ribs with a sawtooth cross section and sloped faces for reflecting light to a receiving sensor at an angle to the sidewall surface. The bar code configuration for tires molded in a particular mold may be provided by an insert fastened to the mold and having even surfaces and uneven surfaces at the inner mold face to mold the even surface portions and uneven surface portions of the bar code configuration in the tire sidewall as the tire is being vulcanized. By changing the insert the bar code configuration can be changed to provide different information about the tire.

Abstract: The mold halves of a tire press are provided with sensors which determine the contact times of a green tire at certain points on the mold surfaces. The timing so obtained is processed by a microprocessor to determine the run-out profile of the tire. The data is further used for determining the average gap between the green tire and the mold surfaces both at the time of mold closure and at the time of first contact between the green tire and the mold surfaces. This data is then used to regulate the closure rate of the mold halves and/or the inflation rate of the green tire. The sensors contemplated include pressure switches, vacuum switches, microswitches, linear variable differential transformers, and thermocouples.