Sagita Displays Hot Air Powered Helicopter 73
rcastro0 writes "Gizmag reports on the Sherpa, an interesting helicopter design at this year's Paris Air Show. As the article explains 'Rather than driving the rotors directly, the Sherpa's engine instead powers a compressor with an air intake at the rear of the helicopter.' There's no tail rotor. This approach is supposed to be more efficient, more reliable and more affordable than the traditional. A one-fifth scale model was shown to fly. Sagita, the 2008 startup behind the project, has yet to build a full scale prototype. They plan to sell a Sherpa two-seater for around US$ 200k in 3 years."
Re:What are they up to? (Score:5, Insightful)
I cheated and read the article, and it appears that is what they've done.
However, they haven't actually built it; they have a 1/5 scale model, but it's using an electric motor (so it's not clear what it proves), and furthermore the laws of aerodynamics are not scale-invariant.
It's not clear why they're trumpeting the lack of a tail rotor as a new thing; this isn't a NOTAR design (single main rotor with no tail rotor); it's a coaxial helicopter, which is nothing new at all.
Re:Something isn't adding up... (Score:0, Insightful)
It sounds like a turbine being used to compress air, which then spin the rotor blades via some type of air pump. Is the gain in efficiency made through avoiding a gearbox and powering the rotors via a direct drive? Sounds like a good idea! If it works as well as they claim there could be a lot of other applications.