[pete soule]

pete soule asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Monoblade Helicopter

Listening to a naked podcast on a walk-- maybe a month old by the time I get it on my player----

One of the many facest of  my website has the REAL dope on monoblade helicopter

http://www.faiclsocal.info/271/nostalgia/otherindex.htm

Go to the link above and click on "McCutchen" ---US PhDstudent at cambridge - world record for model helicopter -- all in the early 60s!!

check it out
:-))

What do you think?

[Karsten]

A helicopter with only one blade.

[Don_1]

He seems to have been studying the seeds of the Sycamore (Maple).

All very well for a small seed, but for a man made helicopter....... I don't think so.

[AllenG]

In model airplane a mono-blade prop was used in the 1930s. Dick Korder was the first to use them to my knowledge.
It was a single blade with a counter balance on the opposite side of the axel.
The thought was that a rotating single blade would cut through cleaner air than a double bladed prop and be more efficient.  My Korder Wakefield model does climb very well so there may be validity to the theory.

Mono-blades have also found applications in motorized sailplanes.  They typically use a retracting prop and a mono-blade being smaller is easier to accommodate in the sailplane's fuselage when stowed during non-powered flight.