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The Art of the Helicopter John Watkinson - Karatunov.net

The Art of the Helicopter John Watkinson - Karatunov.net

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Technical background 31<br />

Fig. 2.11 At (a) a helicopter flying at 30 kt into a 30 kt wind is doing 30 kt aerodynamically but inertially it is<br />

hovering. At (b), flying downwind <strong>the</strong> aerodynamic conditions are <strong>the</strong> same but <strong>the</strong> machine has KE corresponding<br />

to 60 kt.<br />

Figure 2.11(a) shows a helicopter flying at 30 knots directly into a 30 knot wind.<br />

Aerodynamically it is doing 30 knots but inertially it is stationary and has no ki<strong>net</strong>ic<br />

energy. Inertially it is hovering. Figure 2.11(b) shows a helicopter flying at 30 knots<br />

down wind in a 30 knot wind. Aerodynamically <strong>the</strong> conditions are <strong>the</strong> same, but inertially<br />

<strong>the</strong> machine is now doing 60 knots and possesses <strong>the</strong> ki<strong>net</strong>ic energy due to that<br />

groundspeed. <strong>The</strong> difference in ki<strong>net</strong>ic energy becomes obvious when an attempt is<br />

made to change heading. If <strong>the</strong> helicopter in (b) does a 180 ◦ turn, it will conserve its<br />

ki<strong>net</strong>ic energy and will exit <strong>the</strong> turn with 60 knots <strong>of</strong> groundspeed and 90 knots on<br />

<strong>the</strong> ASI. <strong>The</strong> result will be that <strong>the</strong> machine will tend to climb as <strong>the</strong> surplus airspeed<br />

is converted to potential energy.<br />

If <strong>the</strong> helicopter in (a) tries a 180 ◦ turn it will be in difficulty and will lose height<br />

because it lacks 60 knots worth <strong>of</strong> ki<strong>net</strong>ic energy. If <strong>the</strong> machine isn’t powerful and<br />

doesn’t have height to lose it could crash. And <strong>the</strong> pilot who thought that <strong>the</strong> helicopter<br />

doesn’t know what <strong>the</strong> ground is doing wouldn’t know what he did wrong.<br />

2.8 Efficiency<br />

Efficiency is generally defined as <strong>the</strong> ratio <strong>of</strong> useful output power to input power in any<br />

mechanism. In <strong>the</strong> case <strong>of</strong> a gearbox <strong>the</strong> useful power is <strong>the</strong> output shaft power. This<br />

will always be less than <strong>the</strong> input power and <strong>the</strong> difference will be converted to heat.

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