DRIVE, PARTICULARLY FOR THE MAIN ROTOR OF A ROTARY CRAFT

A drive unit, particularly for the main rotor of a rotary wing aircraft, comprises: a planetary gear mechanism including a plurality of planetary gears. Each planetary gear has at least one planet wheel with toothing and the planetary gears are arranged concentrically to a central axis inside the planetary gear mechanism so that a rotatable shaft, in particular a rotor shaft of the rotary wing aircraft, can be driven by the planetary gears or the sun wheel. A compact and simplified drive unit can be provided in a very wide range of fields of use, particularly for driving a main rotor of a rotary wing aircraft. This can be achieved in that a first drive, particularly an electric drive, is integrated into at least one planetary gear, comprising a planet wheel and a planet wheel carrier, to form a first drive unit, so that the shaft can be set rotating by the first drive.