Originally Posted by dr atkins
As far as I’m concerned apart from being a bit quieter than a tail rotor or Fenestron the system scores hands down when you have FOD blowing around the tail. Wasn’t it one of the Devon air ambulances BO 105’s that hit the tree and crashed? I’ve also seen a Tesco carrier bag cripple an EC135 Fenestron. The last London HEMS incident resulted in a large hole in the L/H fin from FOD damage which may have been disastrous to a tail rotor or Fen.
The Carrier Bag Test? Interesting mode of failure. I guess having embedded rotor intake around the periphery stops total blackage - not sure how engine intakes fare with this either. For coanda effect mass flow increaser, in Son-of-Notar tail, a quick blast of right pedal would sort machine out.
Mart