US Patent 11479350 Tip gap monitoring systems for ducted aircraft

A tip gap monitoring system for a ducted aircraft having a proprotor system including a duct and a plurality of proprotor blades includes sensors coupled to the proprotor system. The sensors are configured to detect one or more parameters of the proprotor system to form a plurality of sensor measurements. The tip gap monitoring system also includes a flight control computer in data communication with the sensors. The flight control computer includes a tip gap measurement module configured to determine a tip gap distance between the duct and the proprotor blades based on the sensor measurements.