Quotation from 'Letter to the Editor' ~ VERTIFLITE - Spring 2003
I remembered having recently greeted a Sikorsky engineer with a rather blank stare when he recommended that NACA/NASA study the tail rotor problem. I responded with the equivalent of "Tilt your head 90 degrees and use what we already know."
Never again would I think such thoughts! I now think of the tail rotor as immersed in a flow field which, at times, would make a gnat dizzy. But with a time averaged flow field having some resemblance to a vortex, said vortex rotating in a direction matching that of the individual blade-tip vortices????
Well, anyway, errrr, in certain flight conditions ........
I'm certainly glad we already know that the tail rotor is a practical device!!!
Frederic B. Gustafson
Hampton, Virginia
