A preliminary study on a length-variable rotor blade for a small unmanned helicopter has been conducted. After surveys on previous researches, and examining requirements for application to a small unmanned helicopter, a length-variable rotor blade was designed and manufactured to be driven by centrifugal force from rotor revolution with no mechanical actuator. The rotor blade was divided into a fixed inboard section and an outboard section sliding in span-wise direction. In order to determine the operating conditions of the length-variable rotor during revolution, and to derive the design variables of extension spring and rotor weight, a series of analyses from multibody dynamics solution were conducted. The manufactured prototype was verified of its lengthvarying mechanism from a rotor stand, the results and required future improvements are discussed.
