ch47
Heliman
Location: Newark, De USA
| Blade clearanceHi,
The blades are separated by approximately 11 inches and they do intermesh. The forward head rotates counter clockwise and the aft head rotates clockwise. Thus, the blades are moving in the same direction over the center of the fuselage. The transmissions are combined together as stated earlier and if one fails the helicopter will instantly disintegrate. The forward rotor shaft is tilted 4 degrees forward and the aft is tilted 9 degrees forward. Therefore the aft set of blades intermeshes with the forward about mid-ship. There have been a couple that exploded in midair from that problem. Two of my friends were aboard one of them at Ft. hood Texas. Additionally, the other one happened in Manheim Germany; Sadly, 30 parachutists died in that crash. As for the 3D capability of a CH-47, let me just say, it will do it but why? The 47 has over 10,000 shaft horse-power and a fully articulated rotor head, however, flights like that really piss off the maintenance officer. They will be doing sheet metal repairs for weeks. Negative Gs cause a loss of lubrication in the five transmissions. While conducting a rescue at 20,000 feet, we encountered a severe downdraft which caused all the transmission pressure lights to illuminate. I’m not sure how stable a model CH-47 would be, the real one has complicated stability systems which takes out the inherent instability of a tandem helicopter. The aft head always flies through the rotor wash of the forward. |
