Nick,
"Sounds like the problem is that the rotor was stable, but the rotorcraft was not!"
Do you mean the fixed wingy bit or the rotor craft controlly systemy bit?
"I would expect the left side of the disk to produce no lift, and the right to have to be fully flattened in pitch so it had no lift either, (and the wings providing the necessary lift)."
Makes sense, I'm just amazed a fixed wing (without FBW) can go so unstable so quickly - design looks sensible enough (long/lat dihedral etc). I did wonder about structural failure, but the description sounded more like the rotor suddenly "gripped" in front quadrant. Maybe the control system still has some gremlins. From news clip:
"The nose pitched down and it started rolling to the left. Larry thought it was going inverted."
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"No flaky pie in the sky thinking going on down there."
Hehehe, i's jus' a dumb ol' speculatin' engineer.
"...explore the high speed regime ... strap the rotor to a bigger airplane ... measuring all the rotor forces and moments and control responses"
Is the NASA Rotor System Research Aircraft still running? I'm suprised this hasn't pushed the boundaries for Carter...
Mart