Re: [HOE] Very minor Iron Oasis question...HELICOPTERS

[John.Hostetter@hsc.com]

Having designed helicopters and autogyros, I can give a fairly informed
response (and answer any specific questions)

More blades in a rotor are going to do a couple of things:
- Increase the weight you can lift
- decrease your range
- increase your top speed (Most helicopters use the main rotor for both
lift and thrust, even though it is not always the only thrust producer)

The range problem can be addressed by increasing the diameter/length of the
rotor, but only to a point.  The tip speed of a rotor is limited to about
Mach 0.8 or 0.9  This is because of the DRASTIC increase in drag (loss of
performance) when the tip seed is too high.  Thats why big helicopters
usually have multiple bladed rotors.  The rotor size is limited, and they
need more lift.

Other ways to get more lift and thrust, at a cost of maintenance and
manufacturing issues (as well as structural stability) are to increase the
chord length of the rotor (chord is the length from the forward sweeping
edge, to the rear edge of the rotor).

John the Aerospace Engineer and Rocket Scientist  :)





Sam & Max <samnmax@swbell.net>@gamerz.net on 01/21/2001 06:03:18 PM

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Subject:  Re: [HOE] Very minor Iron Oasis question...




Matt Crawford wrote:
>
> > > Well, I'm just curious, but what would the added effects be of
> > > having rotors of more than two blades,
> >
> > Hmm. . . anybody know what the real world affect of multiple rotors
are?
>
> I suspect that it introduces unstable vibrational modes in which two
> opposing blades swing down while the other two swing up, leading to
> a lot of wasted power and early rotor failure due to metal fatigue.

 Well Helicopters by their very nature are unstable.  In the course of a
single
rotation a blade travels forward, backward, up and down to compensate for
entirely too many different things. More blades make for heavier lift
capacity
but they actually cut down on fuel efficiency. In game terms it only adds
the
chance of hitting a rotor. That's about it. And hitting one rotor is
plenty. If
one rotor is out of balance with the others you get the worlds loudest
vibrating
seat for a few seconds and then the big dirt nap.
     Course you could still come back harrowed. Then again I seem to
remember
helicopters having it out for undead. (See Dawn of the Dead) hehe.
--
David Heth
"Sniper rifles have been known to cause Spontaneous Brain Rejection(SBR) at
several hundred yards. "


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