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The article really should have mentioned the BA-609 tiltrotor aircraft. It's the civilian version of the V-22, and nearly ready for production. The BA-609, with the speed and range of an airplane, has tremendous potential, and is the reason why Sikorsky started resealching faster helicopters.
Is it just me or the writing style of this article is really weird? It's as if different people have written different sections. Some of it sounds like a pre-flight briefing manual sans the helpful illustrations and other parts sound like a PR fluff piece. For example; >>>But here's the catch. When a helicopter flies forward, the rotor blades experience a dramatic variation in airspeed. That's easy to see if you imag…
Both paragraphs were written by an engineer who's deeply involved on the technical side and emotionally connected to the team. Both paragraphs are consistent with their position, and the appropriate tones of voice from a single person in that situation.
The article really should have mentioned the BA-609 tiltrotor aircraft. It's the civilian version of the V-22, and nearly ready for production. The BA-609, with the speed and range of an airplane, has tremendous potential, and is the reason why Sikorsky started resealching faster helicopters.
It's probably not too far from the truth to say that, just like stealth aircraft, we wouldn't have usable production tiltrotor aircraft today if it wasn't for the political tendency to spend vast amounts of money on unnecessary and implausible military contracts. Not an argument either way, just an observation.
Anyone know of a decent biography of Igor Sikorsky? Most of the ones I'm finding on Amazon are either fluff or kids books.
Everyone knows Airwolf is faster.
lol, I just popped in here to write that and saw that someone beat me to it. As soon as I saw that title "Fastest helicopter" the only thing that popped in my head "Airwolf" now I have the theme song in my head...
Instant flashbacks to Jan-Michael Vincent .. Ernest Borgnine .. Alex Cord (and his cute assistants ;D) ... jeeps ... Valley of the Gods ... eagles .. a cello ... and of course that awesome and super long intro of the first episode with that lizard falling/rolling from the front wheel of the helicopter when it takes off.
As you can notice, the show did make an impression on this 5 year old in the 80's. ;D
Thank you for bringing back the memories! :)
Why is the double rotor design not more popular than the way most helicopters are made?
My guess is complexity. The double rotors require coaxial drives and the helicopter itself ends up being taller. The top rotor maintenance is going to be more difficult. The Kamov company's helicopters were all(?) double-rotor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamov Kamen Aerospace has double rotor helicopters without the coaxial drive (interleaved rotors) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaman_Aircraft
Everyone knows Airwolf is faster.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My guess is complexity. The double rotors require coaxial drives and the helicopter itself ends up being taller. The top rotor maintenance is going to be more difficult. The Kamov company's helicopters were all(?) double-rotor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamov Kamen Aerospace has double rotor helicopters without the coaxial drive (interleaved rotors) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaman_Aircraft
Complexity, yes, but for a different reason -- gyroscopic precession. Cyclic inputs for differential lift require that the actual (mechanical) blade adjustment be at an angle to the change in the lift produced. With a single rotor you can accomplish that with a simple mechanical linkage (and a bit of body english -- the angle of input precession is rarely at the "proper" 90 degrees). Counter-rotating blades mean two…
I read that as 'detours to the nearest hospital'.
Everyone knows Airwolf is faster.
Truely: Airwolf's conventional top speed is 560 km/h compared to the X2's 435 km/h. With turbo boosters, Airwolf could go Mach 1+, so really nothing has progressed past the 1980's. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airwolf_(helicopter)
