An electrical connector assembly includes a wire bundle having at least one wire with a metal shield surrounding at least a portion of the wire. The shield has an end portion and provides electromagnetic interference protection to the wire. A backshell includes a body and a cover secured to the body together defining an internal cavity with the wire at least partially arranged within the cavity. The backshell provides EMI protection for the portion of the wire bundle not covered by the shield. T...

A relatively impervious mechanical seal is formed between the outer surface of a tube and the inside surface of a mechanical fitting of a high pressure fluid or hydraulic system by applying a very thin soft metal layer onto the outer surface of the hard metal tube and/or inner surface of the hard metal fitting. The thickness of such thin metal layer is independent of the size of the tube and/or fittings. Many metals and alloys of those metals exhibit the requisite softness, including silver, gol...

An active control device for reducing blade-vortex interactions (BVI) noise generated by a rotorcraft, such as a helicopter, comprises a trailing edge flap located near the tip of each of the rotorcraft's rotor blades. The flap may be actuated in any conventional way, and is scheduled to be actuated to a deflected position during rotation of the rotor blade through predetermined regions of the rotor azimuth, and is further scheduled to be actuated to a retracted position through the remaining re...

An active control device for reducing blade-vortex interactions (BVI) noise generated by a rotorcraft, such as a helicopter, comprises a trailing edge flap located near the tip of each of the rotorcraft's rotor blades. The flap may be actuated in any conventional way, and is scheduled to be actuated to a deflected position during rotation of the rotor blade through predetermined regions of the rotor azimuth, and is further scheduled to be actuated to a retracted position through the remaining re...

An improved method and system for automatically generating reliability models for use with a reliability evaluation tool is described. The reliability model generator of the present invention includes means for storing a plurality of low level reliability models which represent the reliability characteristics for low level system components. In addition, the present invention includes means for defining the interconnection of the low level reliability models via a system architecture description...

The present invention is directed to a mechanical clutch which limits transmission of torque to a desired, predetermined maximum torque from a first clutch plate to a second clutch plate. More specifically, the mechanical clutch includes at least one stepper member, preferably three or more evenly spaced stepper members, which transmit the torque from a first clutch plate to a second clutch plate providing a desired maximum torque is not exceeded. However, if the desired maximum torque is exceed...

There is described a vehicle door assembly with shear layer control for controlling the airflow in and around an aperture in the vehicle fuselage. The vehicle door assembly consists of an upper door and a lower door, both slidably mounted to the exterior surface of the vehicle fuselage. In addition, an inner door is slidably mounted beneath the upper door. Beneath the inner door is an aperture assembly having an aperture opening positionable to be substantially flush with the exterior surface of...

A gas bubble detector having a modulated IR source focused through a bandpass filter onto a venturi, formed in a sample tube, to illuminate the venturi with modulated filtered IR to detect the presence of gas bubbles as small as 0.01 cm or about 0.004" in diameter in liquid flowing through the venturi. Means are provided to determine the size of any detected bubble and to provide an alarm in the absence of liquid in the sample tube.

A control system for an active hand controller, for example, uses a control stick connected to and controlled by a motor. Electronics are provided to control the motor to eliminate oscillations due to motor torque and high gain due to breakout at the control stick when the control stick is at about its null position. Both hardware as well as software implementations can provide position dependent dampening to the control sticks such that when the control stick is located about a null position, a...

A relatively impervious mechanical seal is formed between the outer surface of a tube and the inside surface of a mechanical fitting of a high pressure fluid or hydraulic system by applying a very thin soft metal layer onto the outer surface of the hard metal tube and/or inner surface of the hard metal fitting, prior to swaging the fitting onto the tube. The thickness of such thin metal layer is independent of the size of the tube and/or fittings. Many metals and alloys of those metals exhibit t...