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Old 16th Mar 2011, 02:40
  #22 (permalink)  
NickLappos
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: USA
Age: 75
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The mythology of Notar has grown, and continues to grow, due to the excellent public relations campaign that was conducted 25 years ago. Here is some factual info:
1) Notar works, is effective, flies well and is quieter and generally immune to tail strikes. People who fly them like them.
2) Notar has considerably more critical parts than a tail rotor. It has a tail rotor inside its tail cone, with all the tail rotor stuff, and it has a Coanda slot, and it has the rotating nozzle at the tail, and it has the sas and sometimes a rudder. It costs more, weighs more, has mor maintenance and more critical failure potential.
3) The Coanda slot has limited use as anti-torque. Only in very low wind does the main rotor wash fall squarely on the tail cone, allowing the Coanda magic to work. Every other time the Coanda effect is small, and Notar uses its tail tip thruster, which is fairly inefficient.
4) The power losses of the Notar are fairly large, relative to an open tail rotor, so the payload of a Notar is lower, or the installed power is higher.
5) Why fewer Notars? Less payload, more fuel flow in cruise,(but also quieter, less likely to have a tail strike.)

The customers choose.
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