I have a couple of follow up questions.
1. Since load and high stress seems to be what killed off wooden blades - what if I had more blades and therefore spread the load between more of them? Then they could be thinner and more agile, no?
2. Isn't there a benefit in having more blades in that since they can share load, they can also create more lift per revolution. It must be easier to create X sq.ft of lifting area spread over 8 blades rather than over 2. And 8 thin-ish blades must make less noise than 2 huge ones.
3. A big rotor diameter means that the rotor can turn slower (since the tip speed limits the design of any rotor). Slow turning rotors create much less noise. Why isn't this done more on helicopters?
4. The constant chord design of blades seems easier to construct, as you guys pointed out. But surely, the twisting if them to create wash out must be a rather finicky thing to do. It must be very hard for two twisted blades to have the same twist at exactly the same point throughout the blade. This must create a vibrant and unruly rotor path that needs a lot of tracking. So my question is still - doesn't a variable chord rotor (that doesn't need to be twisted and matched up), create less of a headache in the end when all the work spent tracking the CC one has been factored in?
Thank you!