Super Helicopters!?!?!?

Helicopters are one of the most versatile means of transportation out there, they can vertically take off and land in tough to reach places, they can hover, fly backwards and lift tremendous weights but there has always been one drawback. They are very slow compared to planes. Of course you are probably thinking “Just stick a bigger engine on it!” but unfortunately that won’t work. Due to the nature of helicopters and their spinning rotors, when exceeding 170 knots or 196 mph, they tend to vibrate so violently that pilots wouldn’t be able to read instrument panels and equipment would be knocked loose. Now a new breed of helicopters are being built which can not only get past the current 196mph barrier but shatter it, by going over 288 mph. This is over twice the normal speed for a helicopter today. How does it accomplish this feat? Read on and find out!

Two companies are in the final stages of development of these super helicopters, Sikorsky and Eurocopter. The first thing you will notice when you see the Sikorsky X2 is that it has two rotors on top instead of the traditional one. This was possible because in a typical helicopter, one side of the rotor generates more thrust than the other so it shakes. In the X2 each of the four blade rotors generates thrust on opposite sides balancing each other out. This enabled the designers to use rigid, flat blades as opposed to hinged blades. The other visible difference is that rather than having its rear rotor sideways just to help stabilize the aircraft, the rear propeller on the X2 faces backwards. This means that the X2 can generate huge amounts of thrust without having to spin as fast making it more stable. In addition to this, to make the aircraft more stable, the X2 has sensors that are installed all over the aircraft to measure vibrations. These sensors are connected to force generators that will counteract any vibrations caused by high speeds. The X2 also has an extensive computer system that makes it extremely easy to fly leaving the pilot to focus his efforts on other tasks such as looking for survivors during a disaster.

Eurocopter has decided to take a different approach to the problem. Rather than having dual main rotors like the X2, their new aircraft dubbed the X3, will feature a pair of wing mounted rotors very similar to an airplane. The X3 is technically a “hybrid” aircraft because when it is traveling at high speeds it generates almost 40 percent of its life from its wings. The X3 will be the cheaper of between the two because everything from the main gearbox, to the propellers to the body all comes from other Eurocopter models in production right now. It is estimated to cost around $13 million whereas the X2 is estimated to be around $50 million.

Both of these seem like good ideas and hopefully they come into production for the general public soon so that we normal citizens can see them! And hopefully this creates some competition between the two companies to produce newer and better planes in the future!