Folks:
Helicopters Explained for Curious Children is now available as a Kindle book (paperback eventually). If you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber can you please download and give some feedback (technical or content-related).
If you’re not a Kindle Unlimited subscriber and buy it and don’t love it I’ll be happy to personally refund your $1.99 via PayPal!
Thanks in advance for any comments.
[I should note that this was developed as a hand-out for schools that we visit in our helicopter (free of charge). Also,if you don’t want to invest $1.99, email me and I will send you the ePub or PDF.]
It’s a great introduction to helicopter theory and practice, plus a peek into philg’s interests.
A couple of questions about Robinson:
1. Why is Robinson so much less expensive than the competition?
2. Why is the rotor mast so tall? I presume to keep the rotor high enough for safety.
As a Delta retiree, one tiny editorial nit. It is “Delta Air Lines”, not “Delta Airlines” although everybody does it.
one more thing, I would have preferred a profile picture of the Bell, not the overhead shot in the museum. This is the first helicopter most older people can recognize, also famous from TV’s “MASH”
Donald: How can Robinson sell a helicopter with Jet Ranger 206 performance (and four seats instead of five) for 1/5th the price? They made it light enough that it could run on 205 hp (225 for 5 minutes), at which point they could use a piston engine, which is a lot cheaper than a turbine and also can go a lot farther per lb. of fuel.
I don’t think that there is a special magic to Robinson’s engineering, other than keeping everything light so that it can just get to the 2200-hour overhaul. When Robinson added one more seat the price more than doubled as they found they could no longer do it with a piston engine.
I do think that the mast is tall for the reason that you suggest, i.e., to make sure that people don’t get hit as they enter and exit.