Fastest helicopter in the world.

[gypsyman]

Slow motion on the rotors is awsome.

http://devour.com/video/worlds-fastest-helicopter/

edit: direct link for those who hate sites that simply embed youtube videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK7ktLXhq88
-DrPizza

 

[destrekor]

Damn that's a fast heli.

 

[slayer202]

why the fuck did i just waste my time with that video

 

[ElFenix]

edit: units fail

 

[Matthiasa]

They have a nice set of blades being used just for forward thrust, so cheating.

 

[Bignate603]

I don't think that's actually slow motion on the rotor, it's just that their speed matched up closely with the FPS that the camera was recording in, giving the illusion of slow motion.

Very cool what Sikorsky is doing though, I work with people that designed the T800 engine that powers that thing and it's great to see it getting used for something cool like that, it's a great engine that unfortunately had the program it was designed for get cancelled.

I also like Sikorsky's attitude about the development of this aircraft. From what I understand they pitched this idea to the military and when the idea was shot down they basically said "Screw you guys, we're going to do it ourselves".

They have a nice set of blades being used just for forward thrust, so cheating.

So moving to a better design that fits what you want your aircraft to do is cheating? It's still a helicopter, it still can hover, it just uses a counter rotating blade to prevent rotation and a pusher prop to get it moving even faster. It's a great idea that allows them to take the benefits of rotorcraft to a much faster vehicle without resorting to a tilt rotor like the V-22 ospery.

 

[blinblue]

260 knots is about 300 mph according to WolframAlpha, that's pretty fast. Cool video

 

[RavenSEAL]

Rotors are not in slow motion lol, that's how fast they are moving.

 

[Matthiasa]

Well no but, it gets a different name when in that configuration.

 

[esun]

It's called aliasing folks, not slow motion. Sampling rate of the camera (i.e., FPS) is not high enough to capture the frequency of the rotors.

 

[foghorn67]

They have a nice set of blades being used just for forward thrust, so cheating.

ummm, almost all helicopters have forward propulsion. Most are powered by turbines, i.e. jets. This actually uses a turbine to drive a propeller shaft.

Not cheating.

 

[Paratus]

ummm, almost all helicopters have forward propulsion. Most are powered by turbines, i.e. jets. This actually uses a turbine to drive a propeller shaft.

Not cheating.

Um no, unless you are talking about Airwolf.

The jet turbines are used to drive the main rotor to provide lift. The main rotor blades are the n pitched to provide forward motion. The turbines do not provide forward thrust directly, IIRC.

 

[foghorn67]

Um no, unless you are talking about Airwolf.

The jet turbines are used to drive the main rotor to provide lift. The main rotor blades are the n pitched to provide forward motion. The turbines do not provide forward thrust directly, IIRC.

Kind of my point. Same turbine for the rotors powers the prop in that new Sikorsky? Different split in the power compared to a tail rotor maybe, but not cheating.

 

[fatpat268]

Kind of my point. Same turbine for the rotors powers the prop in that new Sikorsky? Different split in the power compared to a tail rotor maybe, but not cheating.

The way you worded it made it seem like the engines provide thrust in the same manner as they do on airplanes.

All of the forward thrust in a standard helicopter comes from increasing the speed of the rotors and rotating the pitch of the rotors forward.

 

[skyking]

Nice find there OP.

 

[foghorn67]

It's called aliasing folks, not slow motion. Sampling rate of the camera (i.e., FPS) is not high enough to capture the frequency of the rotors.

Same effect at looking at the wheel spokes of a speeding car, and they seem to move backwards.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

i think this craft is actually a gyrodyne, not a helicopter.

 

[Pocatello]

This could compete with the tilt-rotor aircraft like the Osprey. The Osprey is an extremely complex machine which requires a great deal of maintenance to operate but much faster than a helicopter.

 

[Nebor]

This could compete with the tilt-rotor aircraft like the Osprey. The Osprey is an extremely complex machine which requires a great deal of maintenance to operate but much faster than a helicopter.

Also about 400x more likely to kill it's passengers than a regular helicopter.

 

[0roo0roo]

pretty kewl.
but brave pilot, no bailing out on a helicopter.
or does a dual robot have even better engine dead recovery

 

[Bignate603]

ummm, almost all helicopters have forward propulsion. Most are powered by turbines, i.e. jets. This actually uses a turbine to drive a propeller shaft.

Not cheating.

I'm not sure if this is just poorly worded or if you're confused how helicopters work.

The turbines in a helicopter provide almost no thrust directly. Ideally, 100% of the power that the engine produces is transmitted to a shaft that goes to the helicopter's gearbox. A very small amount of thrust will happen as a side effect because typically the engine's exhaust is pointed towards the aft end of the helicopter. Compared to the amount of forward thrust the helicopter gets from adjusting its main blade the effects of the exhaust are extremely minimal. This is why this kind of engine for helicopters is called a "turboshaft" engine, the power is transmitted out through the shaft. The same style of engine powers the M1 Abrams tank.

Other kinds of turbines, like turbojet and turbofan engines are what people would refer to as jets because they dump as much power as possible into the air that they are shoving through (or mostly through a bypass duct in the case of the turbofan) the engine which then is shot out the back as a jet of air to provide the thrust. You usually wouldn't classify a turboshaft engine as a "jet" engine because it's not designed to create thrust by that jet of air coming out the back.

As a historical side note the engine in the M1 Abrams had actually been developed into a flight weight engine to power the Blackhawk and Apache but lost to GE's T700. It's suspected that they military chose GE mostly because of political reasons. The company (Lycoming) producing the M1's engine already had contracts for a huge percentage of the turboshaft engines being sold to the military at the time in many different vehicles.

 

[Bignate603]

pretty kewl.
but brave pilot, no bailing out on a helicopter.
or does a dual robot have even better engine dead recovery

It probably won't be that engine that dies. That thing uses a T800, which is an extremely solid engine. It went through full development and was flight ready to go into the Army's Commanche helicopter before they killed the program. Unfortunately it's a great engine without many applications right now.

The risk on that helicopter is more likely the new and custom parts that haven't gone through full development yet. It's likely they're using a custom gearbox and new mechanical components throughout the drivetrain for that counter rotating rotor system. Because there is less experience with those components they're a higher risk.

 

[Nintendesert]

Also about 400x more likely to kill it's passengers than a regular helicopter.

That's simply bullshit. The Osprey has proven extremely reliable in Iraq and Afghanistan and given the choice that's the only helicopter I'll travel on.

The Sikorsky X2 is a more exciting replacement to the Cobra. An attack helicopter able to compliment the Osprey would be an amazing addition to the battle space.

 

[Bignate603]

That's simply bullshit. The Osprey has proven extremely reliable in Iraq and Afghanistan and given the choice that's the only helicopter I'll travel on.

There is some additional risk with the V-22 because of the addition of a transition between fixed wing flight and rotor powered flight and the inability to autorotate the rotors during an engine failure while in rotor powered flight. However, for military use the ability to travel farther burning less fuel, travel significantly faster and higher, and still land vertically like a helicopter can save far more lives than these issues, which so far have proven to be minimal.

 

[LTC8K6]

Helicopters taxiing by tilting their rotors.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Travira-Air/Sikorsky-S-76C/1649664/L/

http://www.airliners.net/photo/(Hendrick-Motorsports)/Bell-430/1714768/L/

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Bond-Offshore-Helicopters/Eurocopter-AS-365N-3-Dauphin/1739401/L/