I agree, Piers, but the designer of the system will have been aware of the
limitations: the angle, the number of wires and (presumably) the speed of the
helo at time of strike. There must also be the risk of whiplash from the wires
as they part, particularly if the cable starts to unravel quickly enough.
There's a moral to this tale: fly at higher speeds without a rotor . . . :-)
Chris
On 27 Jul 2011, at 12:01, Piers Hemy wrote:
> Seems to me, Chuck, that WSPS is effective only when the helicopter hits
> wires head-on in level flight, with rotor blades clear of the wires. From
> your description of your son's experience, the helicopter was climbing, and
> presumably the wires would have bypassed the WSPS (perhaps hitting the rotor
> blades from above, perhaps hitting the tail boom). I was reading the
> following last night, in a completely unrelated context: "How error and
> unlucky chance [...] conspire to seek out the smallest chink in the armour
> of the most elaborate and carefully planned assembly of safety devices ..."
>
--
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