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Old 22nd Feb 2023, 19:00
  #17 (permalink)  
Otterotor
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Corpus Christi, Texas
Age: 69
Posts: 68
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Main Rotor Blade Integrity.

Main rotor blades require C.F. stiffening in flight to remain integral. I once saw an episode of Air Wolf where they (directors, producers, actors) demonstrated through the magic of television the act of pushing the modified Bell 222 out the back of a cargo plane with pilot and copilot onboard and started her up while in free-fall. This is not going to be possible as the blades would fold up (with no C.F. load) and fracture at about the same spanwise location as the photos depicted of the rotor hub on the oil derrick. Impacting the landing deck due to winds pushing the fuselage over would also result in the inboard blade fractures. Not sure if the winds caused the non-rotating blades to elevate due the wind causing lift or if the fuselage rolled and the blades impacted local platform structure. Otter's opinion, fire away.
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