Jerry Airola

Jerry Airola
The rotor system, or more simply rotor,
is the rotating part of a helicopter which generates lift. A rotor system may be
mounted horizontally as main rotors are, providing lift vertically, or it may be
mounted vertically, such as a tail rotor, to provide lift horizontally as thrust
to counteract torque effect. The rotor consists of a mast, hub and rotor blades.

This "Tilt-wing" design is unlike the "Tilt-Rotor" in that the whole
wing tilts and not just the engine nacelles. A design like this loses the lift
generated by the wing at lower speed and is less versatile than a pure
"Tilt-Rotor" design. The engines could only lift it straight up and it had no
form of helicopter controls.

Rotodyne

The Rotodyne used jet
thrust at the rotor blade tips to propel the rotor to a high speed for takeoff
and landing. The rotor would be unloaded in flight and the aircraft would fly
like an airplane at cruise speeds. The major problem with this was the noise
created by the jet powered rotor system.

Jerry Airola

Hover

Hovering is the most
challenging part of flying a helicopter. This is because a helicopter generates
its own gusty air while in a hover, which acts against the fuselage and flight
control surfaces. The end result is constant control inputs and corrections by
the pilot to keep the helicopter where it is required to be. Despite the
complexity of the task, the control inputs in a hover are simple. The cyclic is
used to eliminate drift in the horizontal plane, that is to control forward and
back, right and left. The collective is used to maintain altitude. The pedals
are used to control nose direction or heading. It is the interaction of these
controls that makes hovering difficult, since an adjustment in any one control
requires an adjustment of the other two, creating a cycle of constant
correction.

Forward flight

In forward flight a helicopter's
flight controls behave more like that in a fixed-wing aircraft. Displacing the
cyclic forward will cause the nose to pitch down, with a resultant increase in
airspeed and loss of altitude. Aft cyclic will cause the nose to pitch up,
slowing the helicopter and causing it to climb. Increasing collective (power)
while maintaining a constant airspeed will induce a climb while decreasing
collective will cause a descent. Coordinating these two inputs, down collective
plus aft cyclic or up collective plus forward cyclic, will result in airspeed
changes while maintaining a constant altitude. The pedals serve the same
function in both a helicopter and a fixed-wing aircraft, to maintain balanced
flight. This is done by applying a pedal input in whichever direction is
necessary to center the ball in the turn and bank indicator.

Jerry
Airola Bell Helicopter's Eagle Eye Vertical Lift Unmanned Aircraft
System Achieves First Flight Milestone

Fort Worth, TX - January 26, 2006
- Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron Inc, has announced that its TR918 Eagle Eye
Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) lifted off the ground for the first time today
when it achieved the first flight milestone in this ground breaking,
vertical-lift unmanned aircraft program. At 8:54 a.m. (CST) the vehicle lifted
vertically off the ground hovered for nine minutes, executed yaw and translation
maneuvers and then landed safely on the ground. The vehicle flew a second flight
within 30 minutes of the maiden flight's landing.

Nazi Germany would use
helicopters in small numbers during World War II for observation, transport, and
medical evacuation. The Flettner Fl 282 Kolibri synchropter was used in the
Mediterranean Sea, while the Focke Achgelis Fa 223 Drache was used in Europe.
Extensive bombing by the Allied forces prevented Germany from producing any
helicopters in large quantities during the war.

In the United States,
Igor Sikorsky and W. Lawrence LePage, were competing to produce the United
States military's first helicopter. Prior to the war, LePage had received the
patent rights to develop helicopters patterned after the Fw 61, and built the
XR-1. Meanwhile, Sikorsky had settled on a simpler, single rotor design, the
VS-300. After experimenting with configurations to counteract the torque
produced by the single main rotor, he settled on a single, smaller rotor mounted
vertically on the tailboom.

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