🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 21 Aug 2011 15:59:02 +1000, DonH wrote:

> "David Melville" <davidmelville@exemail.com.au> wrote in message
> news:j2pn36$bc9$2@dont-email.me...
>> On Sat, 20 Aug 2011 06:56:41 +1000, DonH wrote:
>>
>>> Is the helicopter essentially an unstable aircraft?
>>>   By that, I mean, is it usually fatal if something goes wrong? Unlike
>>>   fixed-wing aircraft, it can't glide down if the rotors stop. If at
>>>   high enough altitude, the pilot could bail out, and parachute down.
>>>   Is there a remedy?  Retractable wings? The virtue of a helicopter is
>>>   - it can hover. Its vice is - falling like a stone.
>>
>> AIUI, there is an intake at the base of the copter which channels air
>> up to the rotors giving the pilot /minimum/ control over uncontrolled
>> descent. You're still plummeting, but you might be able to choose
>> between a big rock, and a small one to land on.
>>
>> I'm no expert. The above was told to me by a guy who's been in two (!)
>> separate helicopter crashes. Might be only certain makes/models.
>>
>> HTH.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Cheers,
>> Dave
>>
>> "I will kill for the good of the
>> fight for the right to be right."
>>
>> David Bowie, Cygnet Committee
> 
> #  Thanks for the info. So, it is possible to survive a helicopter
> crash, without being sliced by the main rotor, or smashed into the
> ground.

Sure is! Not that my mate was hurrying back for more. Sounded scary as 
hell.


>     My ideal helicopter would have two rotors, used solely for lift, and
> with the torque rotor replaced by a conventional forward-motion
> propeller - which would then require a rudder.  Should one rotor stop
> completely, then wings would sprout from that end of the craft, to
> assist an emergency landing.
>     Are V/STOL airplanes, such as the British Harrier (jump jet), still
>     in
> service?

I know only that the Harrier was retired recently from the UK defense 
force.

Don't know of any others.



-- 
Cheers,
	Dave

"I will kill for the good of the
fight for the right to be right."

David Bowie, Cygnet Committee