Carter Copter Breaks Mu-1 Barrier

tyler_larson writes "Just over a week ago, Jay Carter's CarterCopter managed to break a significant rotorcraft barrier, traveling at a mu ratio of 1. This 1-to-1 ratio (sometimes called the mu-1 barrier) represents a condition where the forward speed of the craft is the same as the speed of the tip of the rotor. This means that at a certain point, the tip of the retreating blade is "standing still" relative to the wind and producing no lift, while the rest of the blade is actually moving backwards through the air. Such a condition is normally impossible for a rotorcraft, and so the forward speed of a helicopter is limited by the the speed of the rotors. This accomplishment by the CarterCopter, which some insisted couldn't be done, proves that this new craft is not subject to that limitation."

Comments

they cheated

[Anonymous Coward]

I fly radio controlled helicopters all the time and worked for Bell for quite some time. Although this is a great accomplishment, it doesn't really break the mu-1 barrier because it is a hybrid between a helicopter and an fixed wing airplane. This is like saying "fixed wing aircraft don't need a runway" when the harrier came out. Regardless, mu-1 will always be here for the purists.

Its a bird, its a plane, its a helicopter...

[rossdee]

They cheated! It has wings.

One other way of dealing with the asymetric lift in high speed rotorcraft is to use 2 contra rotating rotors, for example the russian Kamov helicopters.

Re:mu and swimmers

[tanveer1979]

Its because they use their legs.