Patent ID: 8287237

Claim:
A blade-pitch control system for an aircraft, the control system controlling motion of each of a plurality of rotor blades about an associated pitch axis, the control system comprising: a rotor hub adapted for rotation with a mast and for gimballing relative to the mast; a plurality of step-over arms, each step-over arm being connected to the hub and capable of pivoting relative to the hub about a pivot axis that is in a fixed orientation relative to the hub and moves with the hub during gimballing of the hub; a plurality of pitch links, each pitch link being adapted for connecting one of the step-over arms to a flight control system for pivoting the connected step-over arm relative to the hub in response to inputs from the flight control system; and a plurality of step-over links, each step-over link being adapted for connecting one of the step-over arms to one of the blades for rotating the associated blade about the corresponding pitch axis in response to pivoting of the associated step-over arm; wherein each step-over arm is an elongated arm, one end of the step-over arm being pivotally connected to the hub and an opposite end being free to rotate about the pivot axis, the associated pitch link and step-over link being connected to the step-over arm at a location toward the free end of the step-over arm.