(Carl) We have our bolt and thread here to balance and we can run
the nut in and out to get the perfect balance. (Destin) That's pretty smart. I bet a smart
guy came up with that. (Carl) oh.. a.. brilliant person. [laugh]
Oh hey. Yeah. You see that? You see how awesome this is?
Hey it's me Destin. Welcome to Smarter Every Day. We're continuing our
study of helicopters and we have just come up with my best invention since the chicken
powered steady cam. Well.. Carl helped too. [laugh] You know, the
whole helicopter thing. It is one of the more dangerous things and you know you're living right if you
need laser goggles and a helmet. (Carl) And where's my helmet? [chuckle]
I only have one. He can hide in the toy closet. We're in my son's
bedroom. Alright so let's explain what we've got here. (Carl) Alright. We've put
a laser in place of our blades. (Destin) Lasers are like bacon
they make everything better. (Carl) Oh yeah. We've balanced it out here with our high-tech little gadget
and ah we're going to show how collective and cyclic
pitch changes as a disc. (Destin) What we do with this is we are measuring the pitch
output on this rotor grip. Excuse me, is that
am I saying that correctly? (Carl) Yep correct. (Destin) So we are measuring the realtime pitch
as it goes around a revolution. (Carl) Getting a nice visual
representation of it. (Destin) Sweet. OK where do you want me? (Carl) Alright how about we
ah you get right behind it. (Destin) Over here? (Carl) Yep right here.
and ah we'll project it against the wall. Here we go.
(Destin) We'll shut the ah shut the closet. Oh another thing we made it so when it
spins up it turns it on using the ah gyro force
ah excuse me the centrifugal force. Ready. (Carl) Here we go. [Rotor spinning up]
(Carl) Alright. (Destin) [unintelligible excited]
(Carl) So ah here we've got zero pitch, all round.
and if we give a collective input, our line goes up
positive collective, negative collective it will go down.
If we give any cyclic input the disc will
or the line will tilt, right left forward, back.
(Destin) So to be clear, we're measuring the pitch, so
the rotor shaft is not changing at all, other than rotation, correct.
(Carl) Yes. (Destin) Alright so the pitch of the blade
is changing as we go around a revolution because the swashplate input
(Carl) the ah grip changes from positive to negative pitch every
revolution. (Destin) That's awesome. I am extremely excited
about this. This is the best visual representation I've ever.. oh
there's one more thing. It's also pointing 90 degrees out of phase right?
(Carl) Well, yes but that puts it in the phase that it would normally operate.
(Destin) Alright hold on. I don't understand how you're gonna do this without a helmet.
Alright, so if you think about, OK, when you say it's in
the phase that it would normally operate, the laser is shining 90 degrees off (Carl) The laser is pointing this
direction and as we get a forward cyclic input tilts
down and that transitions to take effect 90 degrees when the
(Destin) That's gyroscopic precession. (Carl) Gyroscopic precession. (Destin) Alright, so let's zoom in on the swashplate
ah just for people who don't know what swashplates do, give me a
(Carl) This is the swash plate. (Destin) Collective input up. (Carl) Collective up. (Destin) Collective down.
(Carl) and it can tilt forward back left or right. (Destin) That's your cyclic input.
Alright you can give collective, and you can see
the light goes up, and that would pull the helicopter up [unintelligible]
negative, and if we get cyclic, it
changes the tilt of our line. (Destin) OK what is the front of the helicopter
towards you or towards this wall over here? (Carl) The front of the helicopter is towards the camera's
left. (Destin) Got it, so let me go back over here
and try to get it on the wall here. Alright do it again.
(Carl) Alright here we go. Left, forward,
Right, back, up and down.
(Destin) This is so awesome I want to cry.
I think our contribution to science for the day is done. (Carl) Alright!
I'm Destin. You're getting Smarter Every Day.
[ Captions by Andrew Jackson ]
Captioning in different languages welcome. Please contact Destin if you can help.