MJB, increased clearance will help reduce risk of bladestrike, so may also have been a factor.
120, air intakes are at the root of the tail boom. The RR300 may not have been optimised to make use of the dynamic pressure from forward facing inlets in cruise. Normally this would be accomplished with moveable stators at inlet of an axial compressor, but this unit has a centrifugal. I'm planning to read up a lot more on gas turbine design in the future.
helicopter-redeye, is there another name for "chadwickomiter"? I gather this would be some instrumentatiun to measure flapwise movement of blade?
Actually the vertical stabiliser, and blade just above it in photo, appear to have a network of strain guages over them to determine in flight loads. That most likely means this R44 based powertrain prototype is flying R66 rotors and tail fins. Looking at details like the aerofoil section skid struts, this machine is aimed at a good cruise speed.
Last edited by Graviman; 31st Dec 2007 at 11:14.
Reason: Typo.