PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - What causes "blowback/flapback" when accelerating through transverse flow effect?
Old 14th Aug 2022, 13:42
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ShyTorque

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Despite extended opposition here (and in my case sometimes via private messages) Lou Zuckerman probably went to his grave convinced that the rotor system was a gyroscope and control inputs were causing precession of said gyroscope, rather than blade pitch control inputs causing blades to fly to a new position.

When I asked him to explain how and why he thought aircraft like those made by Kaman could be controlled by “servo tabs” mounted on the main rotor blades, he never answered. Same with an explanation of why a helicopter was dynamically unstable, rather than possessing the very stable characteristics of a gyroscope.

Phase lag occurs because a blade cannot instantly attain a new position, it has to be made to fly there under aerodynamic forces. It’s similar to gyroscopic precession, but definitely not the same phenomenon.
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