An aircraft has a wing 14 with a wing-tip device 12 moveable between a flight configuration and a ground configuration in which the span of the aircraft wing is reduced, to below an airport gate limit for example. The wing has a rotary actuator 18 which drives a moveable element 22 in a curved path to move the wing-tip device, and a locking device 30 locks the element in position when in the ground configuration. Preferably, the wing-tip, actuator and element all rotate around co-axial axes 16. The moveable element may have an aperture 26 into which a locking pin of the locking device is inserted. The locking device may engage the element and isolate loads on the element exerted by the wing-tip from the rest of the actuator. The rotary actuator may be hydraulic, pneumatic or electrically driven, and may be housed within a wing box of the wing, partially extending beyond the wing box when in the ground configuration. Also claimed is an alternative arrangement utilising a shot bolt assembly which engages an aperture in an extending actuator to hold the wing tip in the ground configuration.
Locking mechanism and actuator
2020-09-30
Patent
Electronic Resource
English
IPC: | B64C AEROPLANES , Flugzeuge |