Twist-n-shout
Dave Jackson wrote:
IMHO, the single greatest improvement in rotorcraft will be the development of Active Blade Twist. Specifically, an ABT that is capable of large twist at a high twist rate. There is no reason why a group of motivated people on the Internet cannot compete with the universities and companies that are currently looking into ABT.
Dave,
I'd buy that blade if you can make it. Not an easy thing, though, and I think the statement is akin to "the single greatest improvement in automobiles will be a car that runs on grass clippings and produces only water vapor." So, you have a blade flexible enough to produce large changes in twist at a rapid rate, how stable is that blade going to be? And, now a rotating frame control system is required, with its inherent complexity and criticality. I think the active twist individual blade control solution, though neat, may be pretty difficult to achieve no matter if you are a university geek, internet geek, or a genuine helicopter engineer geek. But, like I said, I'd buy it if you could build it. I think so would everybody else.
-- IFMU