Holy rotating air foils! I had no idea these things were possible in a helicopter. My mind boggles at the stresses on those rotor blades. You'll definitely want full screen for this one...
I've seen him fly in person at the Red Bull air races in San Diego. The races were awesome, but the helicopter aerobatics were really what made it for me. I have some great photos of that event. I've read a few articles, here are a couple. At the time, I was flying RC helicopters and was fascinated that he could do so much of what our RC helicopters were doing. If I recall he originally started by buying and modifying a Cobra helicopter, the US Marine attack helicopter. He reduced its weight and he modified it so that he could go to zero degrees pitch (probably by adjusting the swashplate) on the blades which makes it so when he is upside down, he isn't pulling himself out of the sky. Unlike my RC heli, he cannot hover upside down which would require negative pitch on the blades and a lot more power. I believe he also modified it to remove the flapping hinge to make it more rigid, but I don't recall for sure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter_rotor
I've seen him fly in person at the Red Bull air races in San Diego. The races were awesome, but the helicopter aerobatics were really what made it for me. I have some great photos of that event. I've read a few articles, here are a couple. At the time, I was flying RC helicopters and was fascinated that he could do so much of what our RC helicopters were doing. If I recall he originally started by buying and modifying a Cobra helicopter, the US Marine attack helicopter. He reduced its weight and he modified it so that he could go to zero degrees pitch (probably by adjusting the swashplate) on the blades which makes it so when he is upside down, he isn't pulling himself out of the sky. Unlike my RC heli, he cannot hover upside down which would require negative pitch on the blades and a lot more power. I believe he also modified it to remove the flapping hinge to make it more rigid, but I don't recall for sure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter_rotor
ReplyDeleteHere are a couple of articles:
http://www.redbull.com/us/en/stories/1331628079043/no-questions-asked-with-chuck-aaron
http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/Article/He-makes-flipping-a-helicopter-look-as-easy-as-flipping-a-pancake-021243312643429
http://karlenepetitt.blogspot.com/2012/09/chuck-aaron.html