Actually it isnt the helicopter moving , its the pilot controlling the earth around him.

Its all relative, the rotors dont need to move for lift , they are there for balance.

:ok:

HF

I'm just trying to work out what railway sleepers look like, as filmed from a stopped rotor helicopter, when a Russian stealth train runs across them.

On a conveyor belt......

ST,
From a stationary railway sleeper, this is what a rotor blade looks like!

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g1.../r22blades.jpg

That one always keeps coming back :ok:

For those not in the know, this was the joint US/Aus Helicopter Return Project-Experimental Study. (HeRPES)

Because of the increasing loss of the R22/44 series of helicopters, it was thought that the re-design of the basic rotor blade would enable aircraft in a navigational embarrassment situation, to be able to 'rotor profile shift'. A kind of shape shifting using pneumatic cells along the trailing edges.

This would allow the aircraft to return to it's point of origin with the minimum amount of navigational workload for its pilot. However the project was eventually cancelled as it was realised that the most common time for navigational embarrassment was after the point of no return, resulting in the aircraft being lost anyway due to lack of fuel!

How the facts continually get mixed up.

This main rotor & tail rotor ( look close ) was designed by an Australian aviation design technology team based near Perth Western Australia.

It was mainly influenced by the Australian Aborigines boomerang principle.

But instead of the head being fixed like in earlier designs & having anti clockwise patterns , the rotor head is controllable allowing for a more controllable flight & right hand ( clock wise ) patterns .

HF

Helofan, I remember that head issue. If I remember correctly some of the the technical problems were associated with the aircraft being tested either in the US or Australia.

Due to the inevitable admin cook-ups they often had the clock-wise rotors in the US and the anti-clockwise rotors in Australia. As with the water going down the plughole principle, the aircraft had to be in the correct hemisphere for it to operate in the correct sense.

The British suggested that to overcome this problem, the project set up an operating base near to the Equator. As it happened, the British Army exercise near to the Equator in Kenya and with the Kenyans permission they would supply the security required, as long as our boffins could have an input into the project.

After the relevant clearances were given, the Kenyan New Operating Base (KNOB) was set up in Nanyuki. This was a highly successful unit, until a few months later, just when the big breakthroughs were happening, the Kenyan Landowners and Arrowhead Polishers (KLAP) reclaimed the land for the development of the Kenyan University - Nanyuki Town. ( := )

The project then returned to the original test bases in Perth and New Mexico, the British pulled out first, and it all went downhill from there!

Mate,
I get the feeling you were working on the project as well.

Now just to figure who you are and we can finish off a few cold ones.

Now If we could get the funding for the 3 bladed varient , we would have ourselves a winner.

HF
;)