An aircraft assembly has a tie rod 50 and a fixture arrangement connected between pipework 30a,30b and an aircraft structure 10a, such as a wing rib. The fixture is configured to enable the pipework to rotate relative to the structure about three perpendicular axes; for example, by having a spherical bearing with a convex surface ball (fig.7,41a,41b) mounted to the pipework, mating with a concave surface housing (fig.7,46a,46b) coupled to the structure. The fixture is also configured to enable the pipework to translate relative to the fixture in an axial direction aligned with a longitudinal axis of the pipework, for example, an inner bearing surface of the ball mating with an outer surface of the pipe forming a plain bearing allowing the pipe to slide. The spherical bearing may transmit radial load between the pipes and the rib; the ball and housing may be an assembly of parts distributed around a circumference of the pipe. The tie rod is connected to the pipe and the structure via respective bearings, preferably each enabling relative rotation about two or three perpendicular axes; the tie rod may extend at an acute angle to the axial direction of the pipe.
Aircraft pipework assembly
2024-05-29
Patent
Electronic Resource
English
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