Actually, I think you misread it. The scorpion DOES have a
traditional swashplate. The linkages to and from it are a little
different, but that's all. It has only two control rods to it. There
is a pivot mechanism at the rear to hold it at a third point. It does
not slide up and down on the shaft. On the top side, there is only
one linkage which is connected to the hub itself and not the blades.
This linkage is what tilts the rotor head.

The collective is totally separate. It is a cable that runs from the
collective control, through the shaft, and out to a sissors joint on
the hub that changes the pitch on the blades. On this design, the
blades only change pitch when the collective is moved and not cyclicly
as in a regular helicopter.

So, with the Scorpion design, the swash plate is not used for the
collective control and is only used for the hub tilting mechanism.

There are other swash plate designs that use a pivoting rod inside the
rotor shaft that are not as reliable. The Mini-500 uses this
approach. Personally, I would not fly in a helicopter that had this
kind of swash plate mechanism as there is no way to inspect it to make
sure its still connected properly. Such a critical component needs to
be out where you can shake it.

Dennis H.


"PW" wrote:

Dennis,

I had no idea BJ did that. If you remember, I wanted to "rid" my coaxial
of the swashplate. Reading the above post, I got excited about the loss of
the swashplate but how did BJ keep collective control without one. Or did I
misunderstand?

Phil

Dennis Hawkins
n4mwd AT amsat DOT org (humans know what to do)

"A RECESSION is when you know somebody who is out of work.
A DEPRESSION is when YOU are out of work.
A RECOVERY is when all the H-1B's are out of work."

To find out what an H-1B is and how Congress is using
them to put Americans out of work, visit the following
web site and click on the "Exporting America" CNN news
video: http://zazona.com/ShameH1B/MediaClips.htm