PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Helicopter Dynamics: Gyroscopic Precession
Old 7th Mar 2014, 08:15
  #81 (permalink)  
ShyTorque

Avoid imitations
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
Posts: 14,576
Received 423 Likes on 223 Posts
Perhaps one way to clarify the way that the disk is controlled by aerodynamic forces, rather than precession is to remember that some Kaman helicopters had trailing edge control surfaces, rather than push/pull rods at the blade cuff.

The blades fly to their new position, as required by the pilot. The rest of the helicopter follows them.

I regularly argued this with the late Lu Z. He was convinced that the forces put in by the pilot precessed "the gyro" of the rotor disk, ignoring aerodynamics.
ShyTorque is online now