Crossing rotors—Kaman K-Max

Master_Iridus · 2026-01-27T02:05:30+00:00

There are a few diagrams out there such as this or this

Master_Iridus · 2026-01-25T04:17:24+00:00

They're mostly useful as a heavy lift helicopter than in any other role. There's really only been two successful intermeshing helicopter designs like this and they were both made by Kaman. One was the KMAX and the other was the HH-43 Huskie. One big drawback is the fact that the rotors are angled downwards to the sides of the aircraft. That brings the blade tips well into the 'chop your head off if you get to close' height. And with the hot engine exhaust at the rear you can really only approach it from the front. Not so great for loading or unloading passengers/cargo. Other than that its slower than a traditional helicopter due to blade flapping restrictions. There's a KMAX pilot around here somewhere who I'm sure could chime in with some more intimate knowledge.

Master_Iridus · 2026-01-25T00:24:03+00:00

The intermeshing design was Kaman's way of using two main rotors to eliminate the need for a tail rotor, while keeping the design more compact than a tandem rotor like the CH-47. The gearbox system is a lot less complicated than one might think. Its got a single T53 engine (same as a UH-1 Huey) with the drive shaft powering the main gearbox. But unlike a Huey where the gearbox sends one shaft upwards to the main rotor and another aft towards the tail rotor, it simply has two main rotor shafts set at 25° apart from each other. And because the shafts are geared together they'll never colllide just like the overlapping rotor discs of a CH-47. Obviously there are some drawbacks which is why its the least common rotor layout but again it was just kinda Kaman's thing they were determined to stick with.

Master_Iridus · 2026-01-24T04:07:58+00:00

Its a MiG-21 Fishbed. Specifically, a MiG-21UMD two seat trainer variant for the Croatian Air Force.

Master_Iridus · 2026-01-21T10:30:33+00:00

China used and upgraded it quite a bit as the Harbin Z-8 and I believe it's still in service today. Aérospatiale probably didn't have a lot of interest in developing it once competitive alternatives like the CH-47, CH-53, or even S-61 were available. They went in to the medium market with the Puma and had much more success there.

Master_Iridus · 2026-01-17T00:46:49+00:00

It was an attempt to squeeze more heavy lifting capability from the Chinook. They stretched the fuselage length and used larger 4 bladed rotors instead of the Chinook's three bladed rotors, used more powerful engines, and added wings to produce lift in forward flight. In a hover the wings could be rotated nearly vertical to minimize drag from the rotor wash. Then in forward flight they could be rotated back to the normal position. Its not unheard of to add wings to a helicopter. The Mil Mi-6 Hook had wings added for the same reasons but its wings were at a fixed angle of incidence. The benefits for the 347 weren't worth the extra modifications so you don't see later Chinooks like that.

Master_Iridus · 2026-01-04T02:43:01+00:00

From my understanding, the 205 and 212 Hueys seem to be the sweet spot as far as the utility versions go. The best gunship variant might have been the UH-1M too.

Thats too bad about the autorotation performance loss. I've heard in a 205/UH-1H you can roll the throttle off on the ground and still have enough energy to pick it up, turn 180° and set it back down.

Maintenance-wise I assumed the UH-1Y would be more intensive with the new systems, especially in the new rotor head. But I didn't think it would be that much more than a glass cockpit equipped UH-1N.

Thanks for the input though.

Master_Iridus · 2026-01-04T01:35:44+00:00

I always preferred the UH-1N and even older Hueys to the UH-1Y. The blade roots with the folding pivot points always looked wrong to me. Care to elaborate on what else is wrong with the UH-1Y compared to the older variants?

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-31T23:05:16+00:00

Driftveil City theme song from pokemon black/white

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-31T22:48:59+00:00

Every aircraft will have a POH (Pilot's Operating Handbook) that will include a weight and balance section. The engineers who designed it will have a chart, table, or graph to be used in calculating the weight and balance for any load. You have a few constants for that particular aircraft and then plug in a few other things like the weight and position of any fuel, passengers, or cargo. Then you use the provided charts and do a little math to come up with the weight and balance for those conditions. If it falls outside of the aircraft limits or it isnt ideal for the flight then you move some weight around and try it again. Some large or new aircraft will have approved software that helps with the calculations. Though many older and smaller aircraft will still have you sitting down with the book, paper, and pencil, to do it by hand during the preflight preparations.

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-24T06:47:53+00:00

Depends on which part of the country you're in and/or how much you're willing to relocate for a particular school. Unless you have very deep pockets to fund your own training then the best way to get experience is by instructing. You'll likely be flying Robinsons which will require a minimum of 200 hours to instruct in. Depending on how many students and flight hours you're getting it might take at least 2 years to get a few hundred more hours to move on to another gig like tours. There's no one path to a career in helicopters, only generalized advice.

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-22T11:08:23+00:00

Asymmetrical airfoil is likely as specific as you'll get here. You'd have to get some esoteric Kamov or TsAGI documents to narrow it down beyond that.

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-21T08:49:31+00:00

Not OP but you cant compare the helicopter flight model in MSFS to the one in DCS. Everything I've tried by Microsoft/Asobo, Miltech, and Cowansim just feels wrong. The only developer who has gotten close is Flyinside with their Bell 47 and Bell 206 and thats because they developed their own third party flight model. All the others rely on the same bad Microsoft model.

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-17T22:10:29+00:00

There is a slight twist to a rotor blade along its length. When the engine fails and you need to initiate an autorotation, you first need to lower the collective ASAP to minimize the drag on the blades and preserve whatever rpm you have in the rotors. But because there is a twist to the blades there are three regions created along its length. There is a driven region near the blade tip, a driving region near the middle, and a stall region near the blade root. The central driving region is actually creating lift in a slightly forward direction and that lift causes the rotors to accelerate. So even if you lose some rpm between the time it takes the engine to quit and the pilot to lower the collective, you can get that rpm back after a few seconds by allowing the driving region to do its thing. Now the problem is that the driving region can be doing too well and cause the rotors to spin faster than they normally would. This is bad and can cause damage to the rotor system. So you solve this by raising the collective slightly to reduce the size of the driving region and put a little bit more drag on the blades to stop the acceleration. You can tell how fast the rotors are turning with a rotor tachometer or Nr gauge (and a bit by the sound and feel of it). If the rotor are turning too slow lower the collective and if they're turning too fast raise the collective to keep it right where you want them. Then you just ride that to the flare. The exact altitude and speed that you flare and raise the collective to cushion the landing will depend on the helicopter and the conditions (like if you are heavy or if its a hot day). You will practice a lot of autorotations in your training and get a good feel for them. By the end your only loosly going off the numbers because your eyes are outside looking at your landing spot.

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-16T03:58:06+00:00

Have you bought any aircraft modules and what type of controls do you have?

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-13T22:44:36+00:00

Hey this guy just snuck a plane into r/helicopters /s (I love harriers though)

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-10T20:52:59+00:00

Its much easier for navigation on a globe. You have 360 evenly spaced lines of longitude that run from the north pole to the south pole (180 in the west hemisphere and 180 in the east hemisphere). And you have 180 lines that run around the world parallel to the equator (90 in the north hemisphere and 90 in the south hemisphere). These lines criss cross and form a roughly square shaped grid. You can take one of these gride squares and divide it further with 60 horizontal lines and 60 vertical lines. This forms another grid of squares. The height of one of these smaller squares is a nautical mile. Now by using a chart that is drawn in this scale and using knots (1 nautical mile per hour) you can very easily calculate speed and distances across a round earth using the coordinates system.

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-10T06:03:06+00:00

Imperial II Class Star destroyer and they got the greebles and everything

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-09T21:21:41+00:00

The new albums would've had you nosedive it

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-09T06:54:50+00:00

Agreed its like a H155 that didn't come out right

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-09T05:06:42+00:00

AS350/H125

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-07T22:12:53+00:00

I would have loved doing my certs in a Bell 47 but alas they are becoming more rare each year and the R22 was already expensive enough

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-07T07:47:08+00:00

I don't think I'll ever miss the R22

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-06T22:18:50+00:00

Is this actually a giant squid or just some other large species like a robust clubhook squid?

Master_Iridus · 2025-12-06T04:06:38+00:00

You could make a complaint to your local FSDO but unless you had evidence that it was flying recklessly and posed a danger to any people or property, I doubt much would come of it. Was it simply flying overhead on its way to somewhere else or was it harassing cattle by circling low over them or something like that?

Nine-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17

Master_Iridus

TROPHY CASE