AeroScooter

http://www.airscooter.com/pages/airscooter_main.htm

This guy got an MIT invention award and a gushing story on CBS news.

But the bloody thing has a single engine and does NOT auto rotate,
having fixed pitch blades, so you either have a ballistic parachute that
somehow doesn't get tangled in the rotor or you die when the engine
quits above 10 or 20 feet or so.

Why do people come up with such insane contraptions...

Why wouldn't it auto rotate?... The blades are no different than a
gyrocopter's fixed blades and they autorotate...
I can confidently predict that like Moeller's Skycar they will still be
pitching it to "investors" for years to come... PT Barnum was a
genius..

denny

J.Kahn wrote:
http://www.airscooter.com/pages/airscooter_main.htm

This guy got an MIT invention award and a gushing story on CBS news.

But the bloody thing has a single engine and does NOT auto rotate,
having fixed pitch blades, so you either have a ballistic parachute that
somehow doesn't get tangled in the rotor or you die when the engine
quits above 10 or 20 feet or so.

Why do people come up with such insane contraptions...

Denny wrote:
Why wouldn't it auto rotate?... The blades are no different than a
gyrocopter's fixed blades and they autorotate...
I can confidently predict that like Moeller's Skycar they will still
be pitching it to "investors" for years to come... PT Barnum was a
genius..

denny


Don't know the technical reason but their own website has this to say in the
FAQ.

Question: Does the AirScooter auto-rotate?

Answer: The AirScooter is designed for the recreational sport flyer and as
such does not auto-rotate. The AirScooter is designed for recreational
flying at low altitude where even traditional helicopters have little
benefit from auto-rotation. Design efforts have been done on a ballistic
emergency chute for the AirScooter. To be included for future email updates
on this issue click here to join our email list.

In article . com, Denny says...

Why wouldn't it auto rotate?... The blades are no different than a
gyrocopter's fixed blades and they autorotate...
I can confidently predict that like Moeller's Skycar they will still be
pitching it to "investors" for years to come... PT Barnum was a
genius..

The gyrocopter is always in a state of autorotation, that is the flow goes thru
the rotor from the bottom to the top.A helicopter goes from the top thru the
bottom .So in order to change flow direction and autorotate the pitch must be
changed . In a fix pitch design this cant be done .So in the event of an engine
failure the royor(s) will slow down and lose lift.

Chuck (ex Scheutzow Helicopter employee) S

Yup, about 1 millisecond after I hit send my brain got an extra
molecule of oxygen and I remembered the difference in blade pitch... I
cringed because I expected to get blasted by the group, but so far
everyone has been kind...
I still expect this machine to fail in the marketplace...

denny

ChuckSlusarczyk wrote:
In article . com, Denny says...

Why wouldn't it auto rotate?... The blades are no different than a
gyrocopter's fixed blades and they autorotate...
I can confidently predict that like Moeller's Skycar they will still be
pitching it to "investors" for years to come... PT Barnum was a
genius..

The gyrocopter is always in a state of autorotation, that is the flow goes thru
the rotor from the bottom to the top.A helicopter goes from the top thru the
bottom .So in order to change flow direction and autorotate the pitch must be
changed . In a fix pitch design this cant be done .So in the event of an engine
failure the royor(s) will slow down and lose lift.

Chuck (ex Scheutzow Helicopter employee) S

In article . com, Denny says...

Yup, about 1 millisecond after I hit send my brain got an extra
molecule of oxygen and I remembered the difference in blade pitch... I
cringed because I expected to get blasted by the group, but so far
everyone has been kind...
I still expect this machine to fail in the marketplace...


Naaahh we're not that bad. You only get blasted around here if ya act like jaun
LOL!!! Like you I don't think it will fly in the marketplace either even if it
does fly..First engine out and that's the end of story .

See ya

Chuck S

Denny wrote:
Yup, about 1 millisecond after I hit send my brain got an extra
molecule of oxygen and I remembered the difference in blade pitch... I
cringed because I expected to get blasted by the group, but so far
everyone has been kind...
I still expect this machine to fail in the marketplace...

denny

ChuckSlusarczyk wrote:
In article . com, Denny says...
Why wouldn't it auto rotate?... The blades are no different than a
gyrocopter's fixed blades and they autorotate...
I can confidently predict that like Moeller's Skycar they will still be
pitching it to "investors" for years to come... PT Barnum was a
genius..
The gyrocopter is always in a state of autorotation, that is the flow goes thru
the rotor from the bottom to the top.A helicopter goes from the top thru the
bottom .So in order to change flow direction and autorotate the pitch must be
changed . In a fix pitch design this cant be done .So in the event of an engine
failure the royor(s) will slow down and lose lift.

Chuck (ex Scheutzow Helicopter employee) S


But not before our ignorant media convinces a few people to buy them...

Bryan: For under $50,000 you can get a single seat Helicycle turbine
powered helicopter kit as well as for about half that an ultralite
helicopter that can autorotate. I had the opportunity to hover the little
Mosquito ultralite and it hovered and hover taxiied very nicely.
Yep I will be very surprised to see the AirScooter sell very much. They do
have an interesting engine project going however.
BTW I have to set my blade pitch to minus 0.5 degrees so that my Baby Belle
autorotates with the collective full down. If I try to hover with the
collective full down, it doesn't matter how much rotor rpm I get. It just
pushes me down on the ground harder. To hover I have to increase the pitch
of my blades.

--
Stuart Fields
Experimental Helo magazine
P. O. Box 1585
Inyokern, CA 93527
(760) 377-4478
(760) 408-9747 general and layout cell
(760) 608-1299 technical and advertising cell

www.vkss.com
www.experimentalhelo.com


"Bryan Martin" wrote in message
...
The faq page states that it will not auto rotate and I believe it. A
gyrocopter is always in auto rotation, the blades in the unpowered rotor
are pitched accordingly. This thing is a helicopter, the rotor is
powered and the blades are fixed pitched. If a helicopter loses power,
you have to transition to auto rotation by dumping the collective to
repitch the blades for the reversed airflow through the rotor. With a
fixed pitch rotor, this is not possible.

Their description of this thing makes it sound like it's only good for
tooling around over open fields or water in ground effect. The projected
price is "under $50,000". For that kind of money I could buy a
quadrunner, a jet-ski and a snowmobile and get almost the same
experience in any season. Or I could buy a gyrocopter kit and have
something that might actually survive a power off landing.


In article . com,
"Denny" wrote:

Why wouldn't it auto rotate?... The blades are no different than a
gyrocopter's fixed blades and they autorotate...
I can confidently predict that like Moeller's Skycar they will still be
pitching it to "investors" for years to come... PT Barnum was a
genius..

denny

J.Kahn wrote:
http://www.airscooter.com/pages/airscooter_main.htm

This guy got an MIT invention award and a gushing story on CBS news.

But the bloody thing has a single engine and does NOT auto rotate,
having fixed pitch blades, so you either have a ballistic parachute
that
somehow doesn't get tangled in the rotor or you die when the engine
quits above 10 or 20 feet or so.

Why do people come up with such insane contraptions...

--
Bryan Martin
N61BM, CH 601 XL, Ram Subaru, Stratus redrive.

Denny wrote:
Why wouldn't it auto rotate?... The blades are no different than a
gyrocopter's fixed blades and they autorotate...
I can confidently predict that like Moeller's Skycar they will still be
pitching it to "investors" for years to come... PT Barnum was a
genius..

There's no clutch on the blades to allow them to free spin in case
of the engine loss of power.

Ron Natalie wrote:
Denny wrote:
Why wouldn't it auto rotate?... The blades are no different than a
gyrocopter's fixed blades and they autorotate...
I can confidently predict that like Moeller's Skycar they will still be
pitching it to "investors" for years to come... PT Barnum was a
genius..

There's no clutch on the blades to allow them to free spin in case
of the engine loss of power.
I




In addition, the rotor diameter is stated to be only 14 feet, blades
are "exttruded aluminum". There can't be a lot of mass there, can
there? Remembering it IS *ultralight*.

Web site also recommends not flying over 50 feet above ground. Well,
dangit, how ya gonna clear the power lines if ya can't go over 50 ft?

Controls like a motorcycle -- just gotta appeal to "everyman".

But like others stated, it will attract attention, and likely money
too. (Remembering PTB's ",,,born everyminute" )

Flash