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Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

thenationalnews.com

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Re: Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

#171

Post by alisonkisk »

Natsu wrote: post #35
wincy wrote: post #15

He didn't have a helmet or so much as a seatbelt in the helicopter. The tail rotor flew off, hit the main rotor at a high speed, which knocked him sideways, out of the fuselage. It was at this point his head came into contact with the spinning main rotor, likely killing him instantly. A seatbelt seems like it would have saved his life. It was recorded, which is how I know this, I honestly wouldn't suggest looking for…

Back in college, one of my advisors was a control systems engineer. He showed me the matrix of PDEs for the helicopter & the control system. There was also a simulator where the height of the helicopter was fixed and you could just tilt the main rotor forward or back to move and you could try this with or without a control system. The helicopter was completely uncontrollable without the control system. In the simulat…

There's an old joke that anyone who studies physics knows that helicopters are imposible.

Re: Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

#172

Post by Natsu »

alisonkisk wrote: post #171
Natsu wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in college, one of my advisors was a control systems engineer. He showed me the matrix of PDEs for the helicopter & the control system. There was also a simulator where the height of the helicopter was fixed and you could just tilt the main rotor forward or back to move and you could try this with or without a control system. The helicopter was completely uncontrollable without the control system. In the simulat…

There's an old joke that anyone who studies physics knows that helicopters are imposible.

I saw those scary looking matrices and the stack of papers you needed to understand to do anything with them, so I can believe it.

Re: Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

#173

Post by didntknowya »

wincy wrote: post #15

He didn't have a helmet or so much as a seatbelt in the helicopter. The tail rotor flew off, hit the main rotor at a high speed, which knocked him sideways, out of the fuselage. It was at this point his head came into contact with the spinning main rotor, likely killing him instantly. A seatbelt seems like it would have saved his life. It was recorded, which is how I know this, I honestly wouldn't suggest looking for…

helicopter accidents are notoriously hard to survive though, seatbelt or not.

Re: Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

#175

Post by supermatt »

benhurmarcel wrote: post #150
wincy wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to hear that. It’s definitely a tragic story. I ordered some things from McMaster Carr just the other day and it arrived within a few days. I get frustrated sometimes when the parts I need have to ship from China and take a month. But they are cheap and they’ll arrive eventually. It’s definitely sad to see genius wasted because the tools just sometimes aren’t available in places like India. Thanks for this info…

Even in Europe we don’t have an equivalent to McMaster Carr. We can certainly procure the materials we need, but as far as I know there’s nothing quite practical like that US shop.

Can you recommend a few places? I really struggle getting specific parts in LT.

Re: Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

#176

Post by pcnix »

brutus1213 wrote: post #2

I was watching the Stuff Made Here Youtube channel (amazing channel btw) and was getting tempted by Shane's (guy running said channel) shop tour ([1]). Surely I could get tool X and operate it safely? But yeah .. I'd likely get myself maimed or worse. YouTube makes this sort of stuff seem so accessible, this is a reminder of the obvious .. power tools and moving parts can kill. As software people, we sometimes don't…

I second the channel recommendation, it is a perfect watch for people interested in hands on building.

Re: Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

#177

Post by vagrantJin »

kumarvvr wrote: post #69
vagrantJin wrote: post #48

Saw the "English version" of Indian news articles keep refering to the guy as a high school dropout in the headlines and sub headings. That's a mighty odd description that has nothing to do with the incident. I found that rather derisive and left a bitter aftertaste. Education does not neccesarily prevent accidents. Even spacecraft, built by the best engineers in the world, with the best materials, tested for years,…

> That's a mighty odd description that has nothing to do with the incident Being a high school drop-out is the reason he was killed. If he had been to a 4 year course in Mechanical engineering, he would be exposed to a lot of knowledge about the complexities of building machines

Your answer sounds typical of someone who has never tried to accomplish anything meaningful. No shade to you personally. I have a bias and a healthy respect for people who make things with their hands, and in their own way, move humanity one step forward physically. Tangibly. My own work as a software developer seems puny and inconsequential.

The worlds best engineers with Billions of dollars in multi-year budgets, who know about and exposed to a lot of knowledge about "complexities of building machines"...even they fall short.

[Space Shuttle Columbia disaster](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disas...)

Spot the difference?

The engineers of Columbia are probably still alive after that monumental fuck up. Did anyone question their credentials? Education? What high school they went to? What modules they took on their mech engineering classes?

The hypocrisy of attributing a failure to a lack of education is morally inept at best, and disingenuos at worst.

But my fear is more base. My fear is that the man is from a third world country and that your answer might be drawing an already unfair conclusion from that fact. I hope my fears are wrong and you are just being objectively pessimistic.

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