To: Rotorque
Hopefully I don’t come off as an idiot in what I am about to say, as you probably already know.
The Nodamatic suspension is designed to eliminate the two per rev vertical beat that is common to Bell single rotor helicopters. When the Bell blades are aligned with the longitudinal centerline they lose lift and as such the fuselage drops. The Nodamatic allows the transmission to move in relation to the fuselage and the suspension system has calibrated weights that respond to the vertical bouncing of the transmission in relation to the fuselage. The moving of the weights causes a counter force to resist the movement and it cancels out the vertical beat in the fuselage. The way the Nodamatic is hinged I would assume it would allow lateral movement of the transmission when not in operation but not fore and aft. The primary movement is up and down during flight but I would think that if the trannie can be displaced laterally when static that some lateral movement could take place when maneuvering. I think.
Bell uses a similar concept with the bob weights on the 412 rotorhead. These weights are used to cancel out the traveling wave on the blades. Similar weights are used on BK helicopters and Sikorsky uses a system called BI Filar on the rotorhead.
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The Cat
[This message has been edited by Lu Zuckerman (edited 12 March 2001).]