How does it fly?

[Sindawe]

Cool video of a helicopter that apparently can fly without the main rotor rotating.  Are the Russians THAT cleaver? 

http://media.skoopy.com/misc/helicopter/

Yes, I think I know whats up with the video.

[TF_FH]

Although I can't access it from work, I'm going to venture a guess that Harry Potter is really a russian spy at Hogwarts and that he helps the military in his spare time :-p

[Eleven Mike]

He knows too much.  Do you want us to eliminate him?  This is a secure channel, isn't it?  No?   

[griz]

I don't know if it's a fake or the blade RPM is just well synched to the camera, but helicopters tend to fall out of the sky when their rotors stop.  Did you notice the whopwhopwhop sound was still there?  That's from the blades spining.

[PPGMD]

Until it started hovering I figure it was just gliding down on the lift generated by it's wing (the Hind generates a lot of lift from those long wings), but the hovering is impossible without the complex nozzle system like the AV-8B uses. So I am guessing that it's either fake, or the shutter speed is well timed with the blades so they appear motionless.

[Brad Johnson]

Strobe effect from a high-speed shutter setting on the camera.

Brad

[Gewehr98]

Helicopters fly because they're so ugly, the earth repels them. 

[Brad Johnson]

Helicopters fly because they're so ugly, the earth repels them. 

 

I needed a new sig line!

Brad

[Gewehr98]

I've had Blackhawk pilots tell me that helicopters fly by beating the air into submission, too.   

[PPGMD]

I've had Blackhawk pilots tell me that helicopters fly by beating the air into submission, too.   

I rotorhead once offered to take me up and teach me the basics. So I busted out my favorite helicopter quote:

I never liked riding in helicopters because there's a fair probability that the bottom part will get going around as fast as the top part. - Lt. Col. John Wittenborn, USAFR

Lots of funny ones here:
http://skygod.com/quotes/flyingjokes.html

Every pilot should have a copies of his books.

[.Cheese.]

if you look closely, you'll notice at some times a dark area inbetween the blades, just slightly darker than the rest of the sky.

The blades are rotating, the shutter is giving it the same effect a strobe light gives your ceiling fan....

if you don't know what I'm talking about, go buy a strobe light and mess with the speed setting with the lights off in your bedroom until a fan (ceiling fan or other) seems to come to a stop despite it being on.  The air is still there as you can feel it, you just are getting the illusion that the fan is stopped.

Same thing here.  It's a coincidence that it worked out this way... I doubt it was intentional.

I remember when I was a film student (before I got an interest in business and economics) when we had problems with takes because of computer screens, televisions, fans, etc.

[Desertdog]

If you have use a strobe light to check the speed of a motor or pully you see the same effect.  The rotating motion is stopped when the light flashes and rotational speeds are matched.

Many times in the movies and on TV you will see the tires on vehicles going backwards or just barely rotating forward.  Same principle, camera speed faster than the tire rotation, tires seem to be going backwards

[mfree]

Digital shutter, I bet.

I wish the blades were marked, then we could figure out the rotor RPM

[Phyphor]

Helicopters fly because they're so ugly, the earth repels them. 

 

I needed a new sig line!

Brad

I think that line was bastardized from a comment about the A-10 Warthog.

[BobR]

Back in a former life I used to get thrown into the ocean every four years and would bob around waiting for a helo to pick me up.

Those were the only times I rode in a helo, save a unending trip to NAS Bruinswick, ME from Philadelphia in a CH53, and I hated each and every second of those rides.

If you sit way back towards the ramp on a CH46, you can watch the airframe flex as you fly. Not a very comforting sight!

bob

[Gewehr98]

I think that line was bastardized from a comment about the A-10 Warthog.

Nope. The A-10 falls under the old adage, "You can make a barn door fly if you hang a big enough engine on it."   

[ConfuseUs]

Helicopters fly because they're so ugly, the earth repels them.

So that's why they tie down helicopters on the tarmac!

[Mabs2]

I swear it looks like the rotors are swinging around due to gravity in some parts...
Wild video.