Helicopter Backflips!

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Very impressive flying. After Vietnam there were a ton of ex-military chopper guys trying to make a living flying in the civilian world. Not as many positions available but those guys loved to fly those egg beaters. Anyway, I was involved with a lot of ordnance testing that often involved dropping same or using them to film from. I got quite a bit of time in various mochines and those guys just loved to give us the 'business'. Most were very good, but some were very scary in what they would do. I never did like neg g's in those things.
 
I really know nothing about helicopters. But I would imagine when the helicopter is upside down it would want to propel rapidly to the ground and you would have to move fast for such a maneuver. I could see how rapidly it descends when upside down. Scary but good stuff. Thanks for sharing.
 
Pretty neat. You could start to make out the limitations on handling after a few tricks, but impressive all the same.
 
Originally Posted By: Michael_P
I really know nothing about helicopters. But I would imagine when the helicopter is upside down it would want to propel rapidly to the ground and you would have to move fast for such a maneuver. I could see how rapidly it descends when upside down. Scary but good stuff. Thanks for sharing.


Actually - when it's moving forward, the rotor blades aren't that different from a wing, so, it doesn't get propelled more rapidly to the ground than a winged airplane that is upside down. The pilot reduces collective to reduce lift (similar to reducing AOA) or keeps the collective in and pulls back on the cyclic to pitch the machine.

The real limiting factor on a helicopter is the rotor head itself: the strain of multiple G or negative G is simply too much for that complex set of bearings...that's why you don't see helicopters doing stunts...the G load is too much on that single component...
 
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