"Ernest Christley" wrote in message
.com...
Big John wrote:
Sanman

On a parallel plane to your rotor blades.

The DOD (Goodyear) some years ago built a inflatable airplane (XAO-3).
It folded up the size of a big suitcase. The wing and control surfaces
were 'blown up' an provided lift and control surface. The unit was
designed for dropping to downed pilots behind enemy lines. They would
blow it up and start a little put put motor and fly to a safe area.
Had a renge of over 300 miles as I recall. Think a air pump was on the
little motor to provide air to inflate.


I saw this on the Wings channel. The airbag had a lot of yarn like
attachments that ran from the top to bottom of the wing so that it
stayed flat instead of blowing up.

With enough pressure and inflated structure can be extremely hard,
compressive wise, but it still doesn't have much buckling strength.
Think of a long thin balloon that they make animals out of at the
carnivals. Get it bent a little, and the rest goes very easily. A
rotor would be a REALLY long, thin balloon.


--
----Because I can----
http://www.ernest.isa-geek.org/
------------------------

Yeah, but it doesn't _stay_ broken. Relieve the load, and it pops right
back out.
The problem is with air pressure. If you use high pressure, atmospheric
pressure doesn't bother you, but a leak is catastrophic. If you use low
pressure, leaks aren't catastrophic, but altitude changes affect the
rigidity of the structure.

Tim Ward