Bell Helicopter Textron, Fort Worth, Texas, has been assigned a patent (8,336,815) developed by Richard Rauber, Arlington, Texas, Frank B. Stamps, Colleyville, Texas, and James Lee Braswell Jr., Colleyville, Texas, for a “constant-velocity drive system for gimbaled rotor hubs.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A constant-velocity drive system for a rotary-wing aircraft rotor comprising a differential torque-splitting mechanism and a gimbal mechanism is disclosed. A rotary-wing aircraft having a rotary-wing aircraft rotor comprising a differential torque-splitting mechanism and a gimbal mechanism is disclosed.”

The patent application was filed on May 19, 2006 (12/301,191). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8,336,815.PN.&OS=PN/8,336