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It would seem as though electric power could create a much safer helicopter. An electric motor powering the rotor with the engine acting as a generator much lik

It would seem as though electric power could create a much safer helicopter. An electric motor powering the rotor with the engine acting as a generator much like a diesel locomotive. A smallish battery would give enough power to descend safely in case of engine failure.

madengr 9y ago
You can descend safely with engine failure; it’s called autorotation. Sounds like they probably did so, but the floats were not properly inflated. Also a harness catching a fuel shutoff switch; bad. So many small things that can go wrong, compounding to fatalities.
- elliottcarlson 9y ago
  You can even see, in captured footage, that it descends fine, and then starts to turn to its side due to the floats not being properly inflated. https://twitter.com/JJmagers/status/972974463175286784 https://twitter.com/JJmagers/status/972974463175286784 for the video.
jsmthrowaway 9y ago
Helicopters already descend safely during power loss with autorotation, which every pilot trains. The landing site, failure of a float, and doors off operation were bigger problems here, as well as the passengers not knowing how to rapidly get out of their harness. From the look of it, the pilot actually did alright, and successfully autorotated to a landing he expected to work. The aircraft had other ideas.
- CydeWeys 9y ago
  The landing went fine. The helicopter was even fully intact following the landing, which is often not the case for helicopter crash landings. It's just that there was no good plan for what would happen after a water landing. The pilot, with his greater familiarity with the restraints, was able to improvise, but no one else could.
matte_black 9y ago
You can fly a bit without power by simply doing autorotation.
- cptskippy 9y ago
  Autorotation in a helicopter is just falling less quickly. The speed at which you fall is highly dependent on the weight of the aircraft in flight.
  - antoineMoPa 9y ago
    Which sounds weird to me since objects normally fall at the same speed (9.8 m/s^2) and I would have assumed that more weight results in more potential energy which gives you more kinetic energy in the wings to stop the plane smoothly, but you also have to stop more mass. So I would have thought the weight cancels out of the equation, but wikipedia confirmed it depends on weight (not stating whether the effect was positive or negative on fall speed). I don't get whats the effect of weight and why, could someone with helicopter/physics background explain?
    - cbr 9y ago
      "objects normally fall at the same speed (9.8 m/s^2)" That's ignoring air resistance, which in the case of flying machines is substantial!
      - joering2 9y ago
        In vacuum!
    - jdmichal 9y ago
      g (9.8 m/s^2) is an acceleration, not a speed. It's right there in the units. The actual terminal velocity of an object is meet when its wind resistance -- which is a force (acceleration with mass) with negative magnitude -- matches g. Until then, it will accelerate. So, generally, the larger the surface-area-to-mass ratio of an object, the lower its terminal velocity. Aerodynamics also plays a part, of course. So, a lead feather will have a much higher terminal velocity than a real feather, due to the extra mass that the wind resistance is fighting against. Meanwhile, g is an acceleration so it affects all mass equally. Here's a really cool video of a feather and bowling ball falling in vacuum together: https://youtu.be/frZ9dN_ATew https://youtu.be/frZ9dN_ATew Since aircraft rely on lift, which is also a force, to overcome gravity, minimizing weight is ideal. Gravity will affect all the mass equally. But the same lift force with double the mass will only be half as effective.
mmjaa 9y ago
I would quite happily have myself bodily transported by a small fleet of drones, of the average Maxi- variety, appropriately tethered into a space suit, with perhaps one or two Over-drones there, just in case something happens with the swarm and I splash into the ocean .. on the other hand, maybe the Over-drones would be carrying supplies and setting up the BBQ on the base island, who knows . Point I wanna make is, hell yeah there have to be better flying things on the horizon. Gimme my drone-fleet and proper space-suits, yo!

madengr 9y ago

You can descend safely with engine failure; it’s called autorotation. Sounds like they probably did so, but the floats were not properly inflated. Also a harness catching a fuel shutoff switch; bad. So many small things that can go wrong, compounding to fatalities.

elliottcarlson 9y ago
You can even see, in captured footage, that it descends fine, and then starts to turn to its side due to the floats not being properly inflated. https://twitter.com/JJmagers/status/972974463175286784 https://twitter.com/JJmagers/status/972974463175286784 for the video.

jsmthrowaway 9y ago

Helicopters already descend safely during power loss with autorotation, which every pilot trains. The landing site, failure of a float, and doors off operation were bigger problems here, as well as the passengers not knowing how to rapidly get out of their harness. From the look of it, the pilot actually did alright, and successfully autorotated to a landing he expected to work. The aircraft had other ideas.

CydeWeys 9y ago
The landing went fine. The helicopter was even fully intact following the landing, which is often not the case for helicopter crash landings. It's just that there was no good plan for what would happen after a water landing. The pilot, with his greater familiarity with the restraints, was able to improvise, but no one else could.

matte_black 9y ago

You can fly a bit without power by simply doing autorotation.

cptskippy 9y ago
Autorotation in a helicopter is just falling less quickly. The speed at which you fall is highly dependent on the weight of the aircraft in flight.
- antoineMoPa 9y ago
  Which sounds weird to me since objects normally fall at the same speed (9.8 m/s^2) and I would have assumed that more weight results in more potential energy which gives you more kinetic energy in the wings to stop the plane smoothly, but you also have to stop more mass. So I would have thought the weight cancels out of the equation, but wikipedia confirmed it depends on weight (not stating whether the effect was positive or negative on fall speed). I don't get whats the effect of weight and why, could someone with helicopter/physics background explain?
  - cbr 9y ago
    "objects normally fall at the same speed (9.8 m/s^2)" That's ignoring air resistance, which in the case of flying machines is substantial!
    - joering2 9y ago
      In vacuum!
  - jdmichal 9y ago
    g (9.8 m/s^2) is an acceleration, not a speed. It's right there in the units. The actual terminal velocity of an object is meet when its wind resistance -- which is a force (acceleration with mass) with negative magnitude -- matches g. Until then, it will accelerate. So, generally, the larger the surface-area-to-mass ratio of an object, the lower its terminal velocity. Aerodynamics also plays a part, of course. So, a lead feather will have a much higher terminal velocity than a real feather, due to the extra mass that the wind resistance is fighting against. Meanwhile, g is an acceleration so it affects all mass equally. Here's a really cool video of a feather and bowling ball falling in vacuum together: https://youtu.be/frZ9dN_ATew https://youtu.be/frZ9dN_ATew Since aircraft rely on lift, which is also a force, to overcome gravity, minimizing weight is ideal. Gravity will affect all the mass equally. But the same lift force with double the mass will only be half as effective.

mmjaa 9y ago

I would quite happily have myself bodily transported by a small fleet of drones, of the average Maxi- variety, appropriately tethered into a space suit, with perhaps one or two Over-drones there, just in case something happens with the swarm and I splash into the ocean .. on the other hand, maybe the Over-drones would be carrying supplies and setting up the BBQ on the base island, who knows . Point I wanna make is, hell yeah there have to be better flying things on the horizon. Gimme my drone-fleet and proper space-suits, yo!