h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

These do look very similar, but the rotating blades work in almost exactly the opposite way....

The helicopter is intuitively easier to understand for most people; it has a big fan-like assembly of rotor blades on top that spins round powered by an engine and blows air _downwards_ to lift the helicopter.

Helicopter lean their rotors _forwards_ to move forwards. Pretty obvious really.

Autogyros always have a propeller (or something) to make them move forwards. This propels the Autogyro forwards along the ground - and through the air. The rotor on top must lean _backwards_ so that the air comes _upwards_ through the blades and makes them turn something like a windmill's blades do.

When a helicopter suffers an engine failure, it must become a (typically very bad) aurtogyro or fall to the ground. It must use the air flowing up through the rotor as it falls to spin the rotor and keep it flying.

So the pilot of a helicopter that loses power must change to autogyro mode in order to land less hard. It's still not ideal. It takes time to do, and if you are below a certain altitude you'll still be doing it as you plummet like piano into the ground. This is what is called the 'Dead Man Zone' for a helicopter and it varies with machine, with loading, with altitude and so on.

Aircraft in general (including Autogyros) want to fly. Helos just want to kill you!

If you want to see helicopters vs one autogyro, the Bond movie 'You Only Live Twice' has an excellent sequence where a flight of Bell helos is beaten up by James Bond in his deadly autogyro 'Little Nellie'.

Less well-known is that 'Little Nellie' was designed, constructed and flown by Wing-Commander Ken Wallis, and the pilots of the Bell helos were on the radio pleading with him to slow down....

Wing-Commander Wallis has at one time or another held all of the relevant FAI world records for autogyro flight. One of his most recent records also included the record for the oldest pilot ever to set a World Record.

Respect!

DEar pilgrimcat,

How great to find your reply to my writing about the above subject.

The only problem is that I cannot find the piece I had written.!!

I must confess to the fact that all the "Also Ran"s are myself, an old lady who bought her first computer in 1977 whilst on a visit to my daughter whose husband was working in Hong Kong. !!And all the other also Rans/ are this same person myself, who keeps forgetting my password. !!

I have not changed, and although |I have suffered several strokes, am very busily trying to devise a method of brain exercises which are helping me to regain my memory loss. Somthing which I hope wil be of use to all ageing hootooers and other unfortunate people who have experienced the same malfunction of the brain.

Did you actually meet Douglas Adams? i believe I first joined when he visited the UK But very shortly after this visit he died of a heart attack. That is why I feel that the work I am doing on a research project which endeavours to prove whether the daily routine which I have devised, with the help if a mathematical graduate from Roumania, would be of use in restoring those of us who have suffered from strokes of the brain.

I honestly believe that our lives are going to be enormously extended through the tremendous advances in medical science. How marvellous if those who were born at the beginning of the last century could actually continue to be accepted members of society for the remainder of our now pssibly enhanced productive years.!

What a tribute to Douglas Norl Adams. He really was the very first genius who envisaged the tremendous impact that the "www" could and has had on communications, knowledge and sharing. I feel we all owe him such an enormous debt of gratitude.

I wonder where you are living now? In the Canaries?

With sincere good wishes for this festive time,

Also Ran83,
Christiane


l am also the other "also ran"s who are listed. I hope that is the only point which I have repeated - a fault with oldies, but in this case is a deliberate one. !!
Christiane
Tuesday 20th Decenber 2011 5.50 GMT