I would have thought that the coriolis effect was the prime mover of the blades leading or lagging....... distance of center of gravity to the point of rotation. It was explained to me as the effect a skater gets whilst spinning and raising and lowering their arms.... arms straight out = center of gravity further from point of rotation, spinining slows. arms lowered or raised = centre of gravity closer to point of rotation, spinning speeds up. add in the drag hinge, inertia, and all the other techy stuff = blade lead/lag. I would have thought that disymetry of lift would have been the prime mover of flapping and as a result of the flapping, coriolis effect comes into play, but leading/lagging being only dependant on coriolis effect.
bugga, its hard to put all that into words. I know what I mean, but its hard to express it. Um maybe, coriolis is a secondary effect of flapping but a primary cause of lead/lag.
Its all smoke and mirrors anyway, they dont fly because of any of that other bunk, they are just that ugly that the earth repels em.
bugga bugga, now I'm confused. I'm going looking for my books now.