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... On Jan 21, 1:14 am, "Steve R." wrote: wrote in message ... On Jan 20, 6:12 pm, "Steve R." wrote: wrote in message As to helicopters, I know they morphed out of autogyros thanks to the rotor head development of Cierva. But I don't understand how gyroscopic precession can enter into the control of the helicopter rotor plane when there is so much imput coming from the pilot. That would mean his controls would be set in precession so a move to right is really an input on the bottom of the rotor plane? If I'm reading you correctly, you're uncertain why the control inputs are applied to the rotor blades ahead of where you really want the rotor to react? Maybe I'm not following you on this but with regards to gyroscopic precession, I'll offer this. First of all, as a spinning object, the rotor system, be it on a helicopter or gyroplane, is a gyroscope. As such, it acts like one. One of the properties of a gyroscope is the property of rigidity in space. That is, it wants to maintain it's plane of rotation and resists deviating from that plane. If a force is applied to the gyroscope that is strong enough to force it out of it's plane of rotation, that force will be reacted to at a point 90 degrees in the direction of rotation from the point where the force was applied. That is the definition of gyroscopic precession. In a rotorcraft, all cyclic blade movements that are used to change the attitude of the rotor disk in pitch or roll, must be applied 90 degrees ahead of where the pilot really wants the rotor to move. If the rotor is spinning clockwise as viewed from above, or moving from the pilots left to right as seen from the cockpit, and the pilot wants to roll the aircraft to the left, the actual cyclic movement applied to the rotor blades should have each blade reach it's maximum pitch straight ahead and minimum pitch back over the tail. The rotor will react to this at a point, 90 degrees in the direction of rotation. That will have the forward blade climb to it's maximum point on the right side of the bird, and the rearward blade descend to it's minimum point on the left side of the bird and she rolls left. However the cyclic pitch movements are achieved, the result is the same. I hope that makes sense! :-) Steve R. Hey, thanks. I'm begining to get the right idea. I found this tid bit to add to it: " . . . the control rigging in the helicopter compensates for gyroscopic precession. In helicopters, the controls are rigged is such a way that when forward cyclic is applied, the helicopter moves forward, likewise for aft, etc. To accomplish this, the pitch horn is offset 90º to the rotor blade. The controls still tilt the swashplate in the same direction as the control input is made, but due to the pitch horn placement, the input to the blade occurs 90º earlier in the plane of rotation . . . " So as the pilot pushes the stick left the input is really hitting the swash plate 90 degrees before left or at the top. (if the blades are rotating counter clock wise). right? Yes, sounds right, although I don't think I would have worded it quite like that. I wouldn't say that the control rigging "compensates" for gyroscopic precession, rather, I'd say the control rigging simply allows for gyrocopic precession. That may be just a matter of semantics but in my mind, the word "compensate" implies countering the effect (gyrocopic precession) and that's not what's really going on. At least not the way I like to think about it. :-) The 90 degree offset is built into the design of the rotor system and the control links that run from the swashplate up to the rotor blade pitch control arms. If you watch the swashplate tilt when the pilot moves the cyclic control, you'll see that the swashplate actually tilts in the same direction that the pilot moves the control. If the pilot moves it forward, the swashplate tilts forward. Backward and the swashplate tilts backwards. Likewise for left and right control movements and everything in between. The main rotor system will follow in the direction that the swashplate tilts. Everything that happens from the swashplate up, happens automatically and the 90 degree lead is, as the man said, built into the control rigging. Steve R. |
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