"Oliver Kunze" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I am wondering what the consequences of a broken rotating pitch link of a
=
4-bladed rotor will be. From my understanding, the free-to-pitch blade
will
eventually come to a high angle of attack that the airloads will crush its
structure and if not the debris will destroy the other rotor blades, the
centrifugal forces of the out-of-balance rotor with the remaining blades
will destroy the rotor head and/or the gearbox.
On the other hand I've seen some FMEAs that say that a broken pitch link
will "only" cause "severe vibration" with "land ASAP" consequences for the
ship.

Any opinions on that (I hope not, made by own experience) ?

A blade with the correct C/G should immediately go to flat pitch and stay
there, and it's my guess that most blades are designed and built to have
that C/G in the correct place. 30% back from the leading edge or less would
do that, but get beyond 33% back and the blade would be seriously unstable.


Beav