Posts by Jason Holloway

Super!

Fantastic stuff. This means I can now have the most accurate time signal to set my wristwatch by. So, err, what's the time, please? Just email it to me when you have a moment...

Does have a tail rotor. But...

I like the idea of learning to pilot and fly a helicopter, but I wouldn't fly in this for all the oil in Nigeria.

If you look carefully at the larger picture of the yellow submari^H^H^H^H helicopter, you can just make out a tail rotor. This would just about allow it to take off rather than spin around on the spot in an amusing, but frankly futile, manner.

However, the most obvious issue that I can see is that there are no hinges (flapping or drag hinges, for example) on the main rotor. In the unlikely event that this contraption could be made to fly forwards at any decent speed, the inequality of lift forces between the advancing and retreating blades would neatly flip this machine on its side.

In addition, I can see no pitch linkages or controls for either the main rotor, usually controlled by a collective - imagine a fat handbrake lever, with a twist grip for the power - or for the tail rotor, usually controlled by rudders in helicopters less, err, 'exciting' than this.

In other words, this device cannot be controlled in the boring, yet traditional sense. Not so much a flying bedstead, but a flying deathbed.

Just because Mubarak's put quality taxi seats in and pushed helicopter design back a hundred years or so does not merit an article in an esteemed publication such as El Reg.

Unless it's published on a Friday afternoon, when it transforms into hilarious aside and a much needed break from work.