If you could design your own rotorcraft...
I did not know the SK Engineering Department used mind altering substances to that degree!
SAS: " but that stuff burns coming out the nostrils!"
You would have been hired-no doubts. Snorting single malt was one of the SA Pilot Office interview questions.
IFMU: Looking at the stowed rotor design info in the SA Archives, I saw the name on the drawing and am pretty certain that person had nothing to do with the S-67 design. Just nit picking here-concur with the point you were making.
You would have been hired-no doubts. Snorting single malt was one of the SA Pilot Office interview questions.
IFMU: Looking at the stowed rotor design info in the SA Archives, I saw the name on the drawing and am pretty certain that person had nothing to do with the S-67 design. Just nit picking here-concur with the point you were making.
Last edited by JohnDixson; 20th Feb 2017 at 13:45. Reason: Additional comment
Good money, time, and other resources spent on bad ideas is taken from other valid concepts that might prove far more beneficial.
The key is to be able to have the wisdom to decide what gets the attention.
The key is to be able to have the wisdom to decide what gets the attention.
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Margins,
I got a thump in the side from my partner for asking that very question during the film! It's only a film, so I guess it doesn't have to make sense.
Full details here Oblivion ? The Bubbleship | danielsimon
I got a thump in the side from my partner for asking that very question during the film! It's only a film, so I guess it doesn't have to make sense.
Full details here Oblivion ? The Bubbleship | danielsimon
I thought it was for yaw control, since the thrust jets seem to be for propulsion.
Was amusing to see a "fan" mixed with such advanced tech, though. But it helped link it back to a helicopter.
Was amusing to see a "fan" mixed with such advanced tech, though. But it helped link it back to a helicopter.
IFMU: Looking at the stowed rotor design info in the SA Archives, I saw the name on the drawing and am pretty certain that person had nothing to do with the S-67 design. Just nit picking here-concur with the point you were making.
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One time in Louisiana, someone told me,
"If an OEM just realizes these are pickup trucks, and make the useful load 50% of max gross, no matter the size, it will sell."
He said it a bit more cajun flair.
"If an OEM just realizes these are pickup trucks, and make the useful load 50% of max gross, no matter the size, it will sell."
He said it a bit more cajun flair.
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It is fun reading all the wishes, especially having participated in the design of perhaps 15 aircraft. The real issue for us all it to recognize the physics of the situation. Making metal fly is not for the faint of heart, and certainly subject to laws that cant be appealed.
First among them is the recognize that all designs must balance, they cannot have too much of anything, or else they will have too little of something else. A design is like a soccer ball, with a field of pentagonal panels. On each panel we can write an attribute: Excess power, hover ceiling, fuel quantity, passengers, crash load limits, load factor strength, landing sink speed, OEI landing distance, etc, etc. Once we achieve a balance (where the aircraft actually meets its design levels of each attribute) we then want to add a bit more of one (more hover ceiling, for example) pilots have a great deal of difficulty realizing that we have to pull out that particular panel, but allow a few other panels to creep inward and lose some value. If we make the hover ceiling higher, we probably made the engine more powerful, which made it heavier, and eat more fuel, so the range and payload all dropped a bit. The design is balanced when the volume of that soccer ball stayed constant as the various panels are adjusted.
For example, I chuckle when someone decrees that the empty weight must be 50% of the MGW! Nice, but of course, if you want a lighter structure, you want a weaker structure. How weak, and where is it weak? Just let us know and we'll be glad to build to suit!
First among them is the recognize that all designs must balance, they cannot have too much of anything, or else they will have too little of something else. A design is like a soccer ball, with a field of pentagonal panels. On each panel we can write an attribute: Excess power, hover ceiling, fuel quantity, passengers, crash load limits, load factor strength, landing sink speed, OEI landing distance, etc, etc. Once we achieve a balance (where the aircraft actually meets its design levels of each attribute) we then want to add a bit more of one (more hover ceiling, for example) pilots have a great deal of difficulty realizing that we have to pull out that particular panel, but allow a few other panels to creep inward and lose some value. If we make the hover ceiling higher, we probably made the engine more powerful, which made it heavier, and eat more fuel, so the range and payload all dropped a bit. The design is balanced when the volume of that soccer ball stayed constant as the various panels are adjusted.
For example, I chuckle when someone decrees that the empty weight must be 50% of the MGW! Nice, but of course, if you want a lighter structure, you want a weaker structure. How weak, and where is it weak? Just let us know and we'll be glad to build to suit!
Nick is this thread an appropriate venue to re-propose your project that would arm every new machine with bar coded ( or bonded transponder ) fatigue loaded parts etc etc?
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"First among them is the recognize that all designs must balance, they cannot have too much of anything, or else they will have too little of something else."
Having worked on a few aircraft programs myself, this comment reminds me of the old engineering joke about design requirements - "A) Lightweight. B) High reliability. C) Low cost...... Pick any two."
Having worked on a few aircraft programs myself, this comment reminds me of the old engineering joke about design requirements - "A) Lightweight. B) High reliability. C) Low cost...... Pick any two."
As a private pilot I'd like a machine that has 3-blades, runs on JET A1, carries four normal people, bags and 3.5hrs of fuel at 120kts and costs £25K per year to operate based on 75hrs/year flying.
Needs to be pretty too!
Needs to be pretty too!
Plastic PPRuNer
I have a vague memory of seeing a RotoDyne take off from Battersea Airport as a kid with my dad. I have a recall of it being noisy, but all aircraft were noisy in those days, it was part of the fun!
Seriously though, are the problems THAT insurmountable that no-one wants to revisit the concept? The advantages are obvious and engine design and aerodynamics are a lot further along than 60 years ago!
Those little Eland engines would hardly do for an APU these days, and with lightweight composites and maybe non-combusting tip-jets or better noise suppression, it would almost certainly be no more noisy than an Osprey and a great deal cheaper!
Or is a a question of "Been there. Done that. Didn't work. Next!"
Mac (just asking)
Seriously though, are the problems THAT insurmountable that no-one wants to revisit the concept? The advantages are obvious and engine design and aerodynamics are a lot further along than 60 years ago!
Those little Eland engines would hardly do for an APU these days, and with lightweight composites and maybe non-combusting tip-jets or better noise suppression, it would almost certainly be no more noisy than an Osprey and a great deal cheaper!
Or is a a question of "Been there. Done that. Didn't work. Next!"
Mac (just asking)
Much has changed since then, but unfortunately the laws physics and thermodynamics remain the same. If you had "non-combusting" tip thrusters then you'd need a much higher mass flow (due to depending soley on gas energy rather than converting temperature energy into gas energy in the nozzles). And this mass flow would have to come from the hub, piped inside the blades.
So you need ducting large enough to carry the mass flow and strong enough to take the pressure, and some way of getting all this high-pressure gas from the static part of the hub to the rotating part without any leaks.
Solutions invited...
PDR
So you need ducting large enough to carry the mass flow and strong enough to take the pressure, and some way of getting all this high-pressure gas from the static part of the hub to the rotating part without any leaks.
Solutions invited...
PDR
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If you want to provide some design input for an Airbus rotorcraft project, go to this website. The vehicle is a single person, autonomous, tilt-wing VTOL rotorcraft, using battery-electric propulsion. The engineering team has posted their design models for public review and wants to hear what people think about their approach.
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Make the dimensions such that it could be slid into the belly of a C130 with little to no maintenance.
Then we could deploy a rotary rescue asset to the Arctic (3-4 hours) in a fraction of the time it takes to fly a Cormorant up there (12-14 hours)...
Then we could deploy a rotary rescue asset to the Arctic (3-4 hours) in a fraction of the time it takes to fly a Cormorant up there (12-14 hours)...
A very good idea, Viper, until you look at the cabin height of the 130 and balance that against the existing air vehicles that make decent Medevac machines.
Was there ever any thought about an air refueling capability for the EH-101? It wasn't in the requirements list for the S-92 as I recall. That's one way of extending the reasonable coverage for a rescue fleet of limited size. I've flown on both sides of the Canadian Arctic: Inuvik area and from Resolute down to Frobisher Bay, and I appreciate the point of your comment.
Was there ever any thought about an air refueling capability for the EH-101? It wasn't in the requirements list for the S-92 as I recall. That's one way of extending the reasonable coverage for a rescue fleet of limited size. I've flown on both sides of the Canadian Arctic: Inuvik area and from Resolute down to Frobisher Bay, and I appreciate the point of your comment.
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The 101 has an AAR capability, tested on a company machine in 2007 and fully qualified (including NVG ops) for the Italian airforce last year.
I guess the Canucks just have to ask (and pay) for the capability and have some tankers available (KC130J I believe)
DM
I guess the Canucks just have to ask (and pay) for the capability and have some tankers available (KC130J I believe)
DM
