7 ms·
Is this dissimilar to a helicopter though?
by gdudeman 9y ago
Is this dissimilar to a helicopter though?
- snerbles 9y agoHelicopters can auto-rotate, "gliding" on the momentum of the main rotor. This allows for a controllable landing under loss of power. There have been rare cases where a mechanical failure seizes the main rotor, such as the crash of the WNBC news chopper (N8617B) in 1986. This particular incident was caused by poor maintenance, however. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Dornacker-N8617B.htm http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Dornacker-N8617B.htm
- astrodust 9y agoA helicopter can auto-rotate, though that's really the least-bad option if you're in that sort of situation. It turns an assuredly fatal scenario into a hopefully, maybe, possibly survivable one: https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/14605/how-does-a-helicopter-pilot-execute-an-auto-rotation-landing https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/14605/how-does-... Here's a demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTqu9iMiPIU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTqu9iMiPIU
- jimbokun 9y agoHaha! That Neil DeGrasse Tyson, what a dummy. (Good sport, though. And I also thought a helicopter would drop like a rock without power.)
- astrodust 9y agoIt drops like a rock if the Jesus Nut (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_nut https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_nut) fails, but that situation is freakishly rare.
- lookACamel 9y agoSo similar to how a maple seed glides?
- astrodust 9y agoNot really. Watch the video. A maple seed has less control over how it spins.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- jacquesm 9y agoRoughly as dissimilar as a sack of bricks versus a helicopter. Those small ducted fans will do absolutely nothing while you fall down. Maybe they'll spin a little bit to recharge the batteries, sort of a built in confusion generator for the people doing the autopsy: "Why didn't they just land the thing, it's got some charge left?".
- ominous_prime 9y agoWhere do people get the idea that helicopters just fall from the sky when there's a power failure? Do people think that others are flying around everyday in machines that will likely kill them in case of a malfunction? Is the media is covering up all the helicopter related fatalities?