Posted on 05/02/2008 12:13:37 PM PDT by Red Badger
Technologia Aeroespacial Mexicana (TAM) has designed a strap-on helicopter. Tiny rockets on the tips of the propellers eliminate the need for a tail rotor, making it possible for the device to be worn on a human body. Credit: TAM.
Ever since the first human saw a bird soaring through the clouds, our species has harbored a great envy for the freedom that flying gives.
Now a company from Mexico is trying to capitalize on this desire with their design for a strap-on helicopter, which is intended to be worn on the back of an individual and lift them into the air. The idea is not new, but the technology may have some novelty, although details are sparse.
Technologia Aeroespacial Mexicana (TAM), the company behind the Libelula strap-on helicopter, explains on its Web site how the device is powered by two hydrogen fuel canisters. Tiny rockets at the tips of the helicopter´s rotor blades take the place of a tail rotor, a component which couldn´t be safely attached to a human body. According to the company, the Libelula would be the lightest helicopter in the world, so light that it could be strapped to a person´s body with a carbon fiber corset.
"The best [part] of this technology is that [these] kinds of helicopters don´t need a tail rotor because they don´t have any torque, so with a simple vane they can turn - being the simplest form of an helicopter and the easiest and safer to fly," the company says on its Web site.
At the moment, the idea is just an idea. However, the company has a successful history of developing and fabricating a variety of hydrogen peroxide rockets, jet packs, a flying rocket belt, rocket bicycles, and other similar machines. And on its Web site, the company claims to have most of the components for the Libelula helicopter - many of which are the same as those on the rocket belt - and suggests that it is only a matter of time before embarking on a test flight.
More information: Technologia Aeroespacial Mexicana
I sure hope the test flights will be video taped .
A Mexican Helicopter??? It’ll be fine until the adobes start falling apart.
I think the writer meant “anti-torque”......
One word:
“Segway”
If those fuel tanks leak, the operator will get a wet back.
Haul a load of them back on a truck?..............
a lot of people will be heading to the border to do some skeet shooting
Well, it’s not my flying car (which I’d been expecting to drive by now), but it looks fun.
If God had meant man to fly, he wouldn’t have invented American Airlines.
you got an honest LOL outta me!
Just doing the jobs American test pilots don't want to do .
IT'S THE YEAR 2008. THERE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE FLYING CARS. I DON'T SEE ANY FLYING CARS. WHY. WHY. WHY.
“...intended to be worn on the back of an individual and lift them into the air. “
I’m more concerned about the getting-back-on-the-ground phase.
I was arrested for flying with a strapon.
The first thing I thought of was Vic Morrow...
I guess that’s better than being arrested for flying with your strap off!..............
The only torque in the system is from the friction in the main rotor bearings (in this case, the friction from the main rotor bearings would create a slow, uncontrolled yaw to the left).
Yaw control (this is based on my experience as an Army helicopter pilot and looking at this small illustration) is derived from pivoting the small vane behine the pilot’s head.
The vane would create yaw force from the downward relative wind created by the main rotor. The vane looks to rotate about the horizontal shaft. So, if the pilot rolls the yaw vane to the left (top edge left, bottom edge right), the force of the air pushed down from the rotor would create a yaw to the right (facing right movement). Ditto for left yaw input.
You first.
I’ll be watching.
Why all the skepticism? It sounds perfectly safe to me.
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