Kyle Boatright wrote:
"Don McIntyre" wrote in message
oups.com...
Why did they settle on the 3-blade configuration? Wouldn't a 4-bladed
system allow for a smaller footprint on the ground (or ship)? Or is
there too much thrust loss involved?

More blades = less efficiency.

Shorter blades = less efficiency in vertical flight.

They probably couldn't have absorbed the performance loss from both
increasing the number of blades and reducing blade length.

KB
How does more blades equal less efficiency? If that is true why do all
current Helicopters use 4-5 blades instead of two like the legacy
systems of the Huey and Cobra? Why do all modern turbo-props have more
then two blades? Somthing sounds off here. Guesses are like.... Anyone
actually involved in the engineering of the V-22 or at least privy to
some of the original evaluation documentation?
Reed