How can this helicopter fly?

on

This helicopter appears to be able to fly even though its main rotor blades have stopped. The following explanation was posted by a commenter on the following site.

  • The blades are pitch controlled and are still working like airplane wings.
  • The turbine engines are vectored downward on each side of the chassis, giving it partial lift.
  • The pilot is smart enough to utilize his forward momentum to keep his airspeed up.
  • It's also obvious that he's still losing altitude, although gracefully.
  • Probably not a recommended procedure, but seems to demonstrate the survivability of the aircraft.

One more video after the jump.


Video: TerrorPets
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Ahhhhh..... no!

You can see the blades are moving slowly.

What you are seeing is the blades being caught at the right frame rate to appear that they are stopped.

Just like a strobe light at the right rate can appear to stop a fan, or when the spokes of car 'spinner' hubcaps appear to stop or move backwards to your eyes.

It's just an optical illusion....
17 May, 2007 22:43
Anonymous said…
This is an issue of phasing with the camera shutter and the rotation of the blades. Helicopters cannot fly without them spinning. If the helicopter in this image had blades that were stopped, regardless of any forward momentum, it would fall. It cannot fly like this because the issue of surface area. When you have small surface area for a wing, you can however compensate by putting more over the surface (ie, making the wing/rotor move). Also, let's say that the helicopter had enough forward momentum to create lift, it would only be on the one side, since the rotor blade is facing the wrong direction. This is why we don't see super fast helicopters. As one blade(s) leads into the wind on one side of the craft, it creates lift, the blade(s) other would be moving with the wind and not creating the same lift. This essentially makes the chopper roll. Some dual rotor helicopter manufacturers are addressing this though.
18 May, 2007 05:47
Anonymous said…
Helicopters can glide well - I have not seen gliding with a static main rotor before, but I did notice the tail rotor is still working. I don't know how fast, but this suggests some unseen force must be acting on the aircraft, as it is not spinning.
18 May, 2007 05:49
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