Airplanes you can understand: they're basically just big birds, with recognizable wings, tail and body. But helicopters... are somewhat strange beasts. It's a wonder why anyone took Mr. Sikorsky (and his predecessors) seriously, and an even bigger wonder how they got anyone remotely sane enough to sit inside one of those early prototypes and hit the START button.
Beyond the fact that helicopters came out of left field (the far, far left field) the craziness continues when you begin to think about how easy it is for something to seriously -- and traumatically -- go wrong with one. An airplane, after all, can glide if its engines fail. An airship (dirigible, zeppelin, etc) can usually descend if it loses too much lift. But a whirlybird without power has one - and only one (barring autorotation) -- option: crash.
An NH90 helicopter crashes in the Bracciano Lake, Italy. More info; photo by David Cenciotti
Columbia Helicopters in Alaska attempting to tow a barge... with a 600 foot cable and up to 25 degrees nose low attitude; photo by Ted Veal
But, thankfully, Mr. Sikorsky didn't give up and today we are lucky to have the results of his work: incredibly flexible, wonderfully useful, spectacularly nimble aircraft. Although many breeds of helicopter have become quite safe, there is still a lingering kind of madness regarding these "whirlybirds": the drive to see how insanely huge we can make them.
Unlike airplanes, the size-wars with helicopters began after World War II. While, like a lot of aircraft technology, helicopters were jump-started into being useful and moderately reliable machines, the early 40s aircraft were lucky enough to get into the air -- let alone get into the air without killing the pilot.
But this clumsy infancy didn't last very long. The 1950s saw an explosion of radical -- and in some cases terrifying -- helicopter designs in both the United States as well as the Soviet Union. One of the grander designs is one that is pretty familiar as it's been used by both the US military as well as civilian companies in need of some heavy lifting. Looking something like a twin-rotored banana, the earliest Boeing Chinook popped up in the late 50s but because of its heavy lifting skills, stayed around for a very long time.
"Helicopters are coming!" in Look Magazine, May 18, 1954, via
Modern, updated versions are still used all over the world. The Chinook, in fact, is kind of the poster-child for big helicopters. Got something heavy that needs to go from impossible point A to impossible point B? More than likely the machine connecting the dots is a Chinook. While numbers are rarely impressive, the size of the numbers the modern Chinook can lift are still ones to give pause: 28,000 pounds of cargo, which is about 14 tons...
Another Goliath is the MI-6, made by the Soviet Mikhail Mil design bureau. Again created in the 50s, the MI-6 was a true monster. While not as oddly stylish as the Chinook, this powerhouse could lift 26,000 pounds of cargo (12 tons), being an incredibly versatile heavy hauler. Almost all of these types of machines were very popular with the Soviets, spawning a whole range of monster helicopters, some of whose descendants are still in use today.
This page has a few beautiful photos of incredibly detailed Mi-6 scale model, built by Bernhard Pethe:
While the Chinook certainly appears odd, and the MI-6 is damned huge, other big helicopters begin to look like the designers were not trying for size as much as just plain weirdness. Take a gander at the imaginatively-named Soviet MI-10. Although its guts were from the old, reliable MI-6, this misshapen cousin sported four monster legs, giving it the impression of a bug-phobics nightmare dragonfly. Whenever I look at the MI-10 I always wonder if the pilot ever forgot what he was flying and stepped out -- falling dozens of feet to the tarmac:
Not that the US hadn't had its own share of big, and damned ugly, helicopters. Perhaps because it was created by Hughes, the same Hughes of crazy-in-Las-Vegas and the Spruce Goose, the XH-17 Sky Crane was terrifyingly huge: the rotors alone were 135 feet across (the largest in the world). Imagine the jaw-dropping effect watching those insane rotors starting to swing... and the whole Sky Crane taking off like a half-transformed insectoid alien ship:
The Fairey Rotodyne, 1959, advertised as the "first vertical take-off airliner in the world" (project scrapped in 1962) and the first helicopter airline in the world: New York Airways, 1953
"On July 8, 1953, a company called New York Airways began the first regularly scheduled helicopter passenger service in the world. Operating in a fashion similar to a bus line, the helicopters flew to sites such as La Guardia Airport, New York International Airport, Neward Airport, West 30th Street in Manhattan, White Plains, and Stamford periodically throughout the day."
The biggest helicopter to date, and one of the very strangest.
Aside from the bug-geared machines like the Sky Crane and the MI-10, most big helicopters usually look like smaller ones simply writ large. Rotors? Check. Tail rotor for stability? Sure. Fuselage? Absolutely. But the -- yet again -- poetically named Mil V-12 looks nothing like anything before or since:
Click to enlarge to see detailed view (from Russian TM magazine):
Sure it has rotors -- it wouldn't be a helicopter without them -- but with the V-12 they are placed on the side of its massive fuselage. Weird, right? But this is BIG weirdness as the V-12 is commonly considered to be the largest helicopter in the world. How big? Think of it this way: see that 747 over there -- that monstrous fixed wing machine? Well, the V-12 is as wide as one of those 747s. But unlike a 747, the V-12 can take off straight up, and haul close to 55,000 pounds at the same time -- or 88,000 if it takes off a bit less like a helicopter and more like a plane.
"On August, 6th 1969, Mi-12 has lifted cargo in 44205 kg on height of 2255 m, having established a world record of load-carrying capacity for helicopters which is not beaten till now."
(image via TM magazine, Russia)
Mi-26: The biggest operational helicopter in the world
Don't get close, or even approach it when the rotors are spinning: "this chopper's wash will pick up and fling rocks, up to 12 inches in diameter, around like leaves!". With a crew of six, this "Halo" (NATO reporting name) mega helicopter can carry 70 passengers, or a flying laboratory, or a whole dump truck, with space to spare...
See a detailed chart of this craft on this page. Still, Mi-12 is significantly bigger than Mi-26 (however, Mi-12 is not in operation, which is really a shame, if you ask me):
Mi-26 lifts the MH-47e Chinook in Afghanistan (left image), while Chinook stars in an incredible rescue operation, confirmed as true by Snopes (details here) -
"November 2003, a U.S.-led coalition launched Operation Mountain Resolve in the Nuristan and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan. The above-displayed photograph of the precarious-looking rooftop landing by a CH-47 Chinook helicopter was taken during that operation by U.S. Army Sgt. Greg Heath. The Chinook helicopter is touching down to receive Afghan Persons Under Control (APUC) captured by members of the U.S. 10th Mountain Division"
We've also received a tip that the "Largest helicopter that has been seriously proposed" was, perhaps, The Hiller-Copter, which is featured in Hiller Museum in San Carlos, California. The museum has documents and a film from a (semi) serious proposal from Hiller to recover Saturn V booster stages in midair, using an enormous helicopter. The exact helicopter specs we can't locate, but it was something like a 200 foot rotor turning at 10 RPM, with full-sized turbojet engines at the rotor tips. Here is a history of the Hiller Aircraft concepts, and more info
"Here's your helicopter coupe!"
As for the smallest helicopters, nothing beats this concept from Popular Mechanics Magazine, Feb. 1951:
Compare it with the diminutive and very practical Soviet Ka-26 from the early 1970s (you could attach various functional blocks behind the pilot's cabin) - see image above, on the right. And then, there was a Hiller XH-44 Copter, which Stanley Hiller, being 19 years old, designed, built and succesfully flew - in 1944! - making it "the first helicopter with coaxial rotors to fly successfully in the United States."
Carter Copter is the proverbial small company "that could". It's been around for long time, and delivers results: their signature mini-copter has flown faultlessly since 2002 (more info here)
On the Russian side, things were really looking into the future with Ka 58 Stealth Helicopter - "Black Ghost" (it looks too good to be true, almost good enough for a cool videogame - and, yes, it remained a concept... but pushed design envelopes for other models). "Ghosts" hardly die completely, so perhaps this stealthy creature is being resurrected. Your guess is as good as mine.
Next time you see some draconic monstrosity fly overhead, don't jump to conclusion that this is an apocalyptic Angel of Doom, or worse, casting a crooked shadow on the cowering world below. It could be just one of these giant helicopters, on a mission from... well, judging from thrilling picture below, some of the missions could be pretty intense, indeed:
The longest autorotation in history was performed by Jean Boulet in 1972 when he reached a record altitude of 12,440m (40,814 ft) in an Aérospatiale Lama. Because of a -63°C temperature at that altitude, the engine flamed out and could not be restarted as soon as he reduced power. By using autorotation he was able to land the aircraft safely to the ground.[citation needed]
Just as a note, the CH-47 is actually classified as a Medium Lift Helicopter, as was the Sky Crane. The military did develop one Heavy Lift helicopter, but I don't believe it went into production: The XCH-62. It looked like the child of a Chinook and a Skycrane. You can find info on it at: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/h-62-pics.htm
Yet another side note: Another interesting Big Helicopter was the AH-47, an attack version of the CH-47 which was loaded with more firepower than any one chopper should have. Check it out at:
The carter copter is in fact a gyrocopter with variable pitch blades. Gyrocopters differ from helicopters since the rotors are always in auto-rotation making them safer in an engine-out situation.
While the Mi-12 is indeed cool (it's essentially two Mi-6 power units with a new fuselage) it had some pretty severe "ground resonance" problems -- vibrations due to the downwash were so severe they caused structural damage.
As far as the Mi-26 is concerned, another way to visualize the size is this: the cargo bay of the "Halo" is the same size as that of the C-130 Hercules transport.
Lastly, while you did include the Chinook, the Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion/MH-53E Sea Dragon (Sikorsky S-80) has a higher payload, both slung or internal, and a higher top speed than the Chinook: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CH-53E_Super_Stallion
Agreed though, Frank Piasecki, who probably knows more about multiple-rotor helicopters than anyone really should have known better than to come up with something like the Helistat.
Why build BIGGER. The CH-47 can pretty much carry most anything the U.S. Army needs for field ops. The CH-47 airframe as been around now for forty plus years. Which might lend it to be one of the best designed rotor wing ships in the world. Nothing can do what it does better! Few can fly faster or higher. I am talking 14.000,00 Ft. mountain rescues. The Chinook can do that and more.
The office I work in has certification oversight of Columbia Helicopters and a couple other big players in the heavy lift market. We had a poster size print of the Columbia helicopter pulling the barge in the office, amazing to see.
If you're going to mention Soviet stealth choppers, you should at least mention the Comanche on the U.S. side. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAH-66_Comanche
The Ka-58 listed in your post was a fake. The original was a scale model created by Italeri in the 1980s. The molds were later acquired by the Russian manufacturer Zvezda. The design has since appeared in various computer games, and the Kamov bureau added it to their products page as a joke.
#64 is a Jens Galschiøt sculpture "Survival of the Fattest", which resides in Ringkøbing. But attends UN meetings, a powerful statement about the rich western world vs the poor third world.
In 2005 they designed a monument for Prince Bernhard , in memory of the deceased honorary citizen of Wageningen in WWII. The statue, called Freedom's fire, was in the shape of a penis, and caused a lot of commotion.
#58 is a sculpture by Swiss artist called H.R. Giger and is called Birth Machine Baby. I'm not sure where it is. On the other hand, good selection and again a great post! Keep it up!
#54 is located in Stockholm, Sweden, right outside Berzelii Park. It's really awesome - the first time I saw it, from behind, I thought it was a real person.
The Sharks are all from San Jose, California not Los Angeles... they were part of a fundraiser and represent local support for the NHL San Jose Sharks!
I've seen a similar statue to 18 in Salzburg, here's a link to a picture i scrounged up from the internets: http://damiandaily.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/salzburg-statue.jpg
I must admit, every time I come home to England through Scotland, (I work in Kilbride but live in Leeds) I see the Angel of the North, and it just makes me feel like I'm home again. It's a sight for sore eyes, and no matter how long I'm away, I love coming back, just to behold that sight.
nice little ice-cream in cologne germany: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Oldenburg_claes_eistuete_koeln.jpg/399px-Oldenburg_claes_eistuete_koeln.jpg
I'm not sure why you have the "maddeningly bizarre" part in the title. Why would this make you angry? That's a weird choice of word. But I enjoy the big grouping of public art. Some of it is awesome. Some of it is bordering on dysfunctional (what's with all the urination?)
Oh, and I agree - lose the photoshopped stuff. There's only two of them, and the serve no purpose to include in there.
oh melbourne onesss ^^ the purse is coollll its on the shopping strip in melbourne called bourke st when i was really young, i used to love those skinny dudes, people used to put gummy rings on their fingers and sometimes cigarettes in their mouths, but now when someone does it, homeless people steal them !! :(
Hi Avi, No.12, the Angel Of The North, in Gateshead UK, is by Anthony Gormley. Check out his site here: http://www.antonygormley.com/home.html My favourites by him are, 'Another Place' - men standing on the beach at Crosby,Liverpool, and 'Sound II', which stands in the often flooded crypt of Winchester Cathedral.
The crane in Wateringen, Holland was first build in front of the `zeeman` (underwear distributor` building in Alphen aan den Rijn, Holland. It was build in the middle of a pond. used too see it everyday on my way to work. Cool too see it back on the internet
30 is Pushkin 31 is Yevgeny Leonov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Leonov) - his character from "Gentlemen of Fortune" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068519/) The person on 32 is actually Yuri Luzhkov, the Mayor of Moscow (the sculpture by Tsereteli is indeed called "A Street Sweeper")
#78, the bull lying down in Manhattan, is definitely a Photoshop. That picture was taken at the almost-very-bottom of Broadway where Wall Street begins, called Bowling Green. There IS a sculpture of a bull at Bowling Green, but he's standing confidently and isn't knocked over -- unless there's been some vandalism since I left NYC six months ago.
No.16 & 20 - Statue of two pissing men in the heart of Prague. There is also a phone number which you can text and they piss the message into the water. Btw, for the next part I suggest David Cerny's babies on the Zizkov TV Tower. Also quite weird. Keep going, DRB! :-)
That pod is actually the six shell bubble house, or "Bulle a six coques" by jean maneval, only 30 or so were made and scattered in the foothills of the french pyrenees. I must have one, even if it means building it myself! (see here http://davidszondy.com/future/Living/bubble.htm)
You should include this one http://englishrussia.com/?p=2307 2 bullets fired in 1857 collided mid air!!! then they were found agin in 2008 over 150 years later!! Imagine the odds.
I think the satellite picture is a bit out of proportion. According to that picture those satellites are the size of Paraguay. I do believe the largest one out there is the size of a school bus. Artistic/journalistic license perhaps.
The submarine collision isn't really that surprising. It's fairly commonplace for more than one nation to be tracking the same events or unknowns at the same time, and that means multiple subs will be operating in the same waters. Unfortunately, the need for stealth means that it's more likely that such collisions will occur.
what satelite picture? I don't see any pictures comparing the satellites size to earth...
If you close one eye and put your hand over the other, your hand will be larger than your visual perception of the universe, but i believe the largest hand i ever saw was the size of compact car.
If the Tunguska event was delayed by several hours, The Earth would not have been hit ... if you want to re-aim that rock, you have to remember that the Earth is a moving, as well as rotating target.
Actually a collision would not have detonated the warheads, outside of a very specific arming and detonation sequence their specifically designed remain inert (even break if necessary) just to prevent that very thing.
"Close call for Europe - Interestingly, had the meteorite struck 4 hours, 47 minutes later, based on the rotation of the earth, it would have hit St. Petersburg, the nation’s capital, rather than some remote area of the country."
HI, the link to the Robert Byron gallery is not working. This sound very interesting. Anyway to fix it? I checked the website but it seem confusing to me.
The first poster is from a danish amusement park, and the text reads (roughly translated): "For safety, we use Castrol" and "See the champion drivers Capt. Wulfhorst and his partner Miss Iris Johnson in their phenomenal car- and motordriving on the vertical wall (Wall of Death)".
Haha! If driving a motorcycle in a giant hamster wheel isn't dangerous enough, obviously the best solution is to put a freakin' lion on your motorbike too.
Reality Hacking was utterly ludicrous, but I thought this post was a bit interesting. Anyway, no one pays for this content and it's usually fantastic, so sod off.
I have bought at least one thing from a advertisement here (a book). So maybe the ones not contributing to the income stream should sod off? It is a comment section, not a praise-only defender of the faith section.
"The Man Who Shrunk The World" cover is golden. Love the skeleton-influenced costume. A bit of blog-hunting suggests that it's a Jack Kirby cover from Strange Tales #92, January 1962.
Oops, didn't quite get to the end of the blogtrail before posting. Somebody scanned and upped the Kirby story from that issue, since it's never been reprinted (guess why).
If anyone's interested: http://monsterblog.oneroom.org/stories/?story=shrunk&page=1
We have just added your latest post "Dark Roasted Blend: Apocalyptic Scientific Experiments" to our Directory of Science . You can check the inclusion of the post here . We are delighted to invite you to submit all your future posts to the directory and get a huge base of visitors to your website.
The photo you labeled "Ice Train" appears in the fantasy art compilation "Spectrum 15 here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Spectrum-15-Contemporary-Fantastic-Underwood/dp/1599290278
It's one of my favorite images in the book! If you are a fan an fantasy art (like me) you should check it out!
Wowsers, Mr. Simon is the real deal. About time the Future looked like itself again, isn't it?
Looking at these images takes me back to the best psychedelic trip of my life. One merry night in 1981 I spent a pile of cash on naughty things and a copy of Syd Mead's book "Sentinel." Hours and hours in Tomorrowland...
If it weren't for the creepily starved and pin-up girls he envisions as pilots... Maybe they put so much money in their vehicles that they could afford neither food nor protective clothing.
Those will never sell. Here's the design process that works:
Homer: All right, you eggheads! I want a place in this car to put my drink! Designer: Sir, the-the car has a beverage holder. Homer: Hello! Hello, Einstein! I said a place to put my drink. You know those Super Slakers they sell at the Kwik-E-Mart? (Makes a large circle with his hands.) The cup is this big! Designer: (Talks as he writes on a clipboard.) Extremly large beverage holder. Homer: I'm not done yet. You know that little ball you put on the aerial so you can find your car in the parking lot? That should be on every car! Designer: (Talks as he writes on a clipboard.) Little ball. Homer: And some things are so snazzy, they never go out of style! Like tail fins and bubble domes and shag carpeting.
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24 Comments:
Powerless helicopters do not crash. They autorotate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation_(helicopter)
The longest autorotation in history was performed by Jean Boulet in 1972 when he reached a record altitude of 12,440m (40,814 ft) in an Aérospatiale Lama. Because of a -63°C temperature at that altitude, the engine flamed out and could not be restarted as soon as he reduced power. By using autorotation he was able to land the aircraft safely to the ground.[citation needed]
Oh, but you did mention autorotation. I should learn to read faster and think slower.
Speaking of the Mi-26 I really like the Mi-24, the Hind, cause it really has some charisma.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-24
Just as a note, the CH-47 is actually classified as a Medium Lift Helicopter, as was the Sky Crane. The military did develop one Heavy Lift helicopter, but I don't believe it went into production: The XCH-62. It looked like the child of a Chinook and a Skycrane.
You can find info on it at:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/h-62-pics.htm
I apologize; the Sky Crane was classified as a Heavy Lift Helicopter. The XCH-62 was to be the next step up.
As a helicopter pilot and DRB nerd, I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this article.
I also agree that it is a shame the Mi-12 is not still in use. If I was a dictator, I would totally fly in one of those.
Yet another side note:
Another interesting Big Helicopter was the AH-47, an attack version of the CH-47 which was loaded with more firepower than any one chopper should have. Check it out at:
http://www.chinook-helicopter.com/chinook/gunsagogo.html
No wonder the Rooskies went broke when they built every helicoptoric notion that came into their heads.
The carter copter is in fact a gyrocopter with variable pitch blades. Gyrocopters differ from helicopters since the rotors are always in auto-rotation making them safer in an engine-out situation.
While the Mi-12 is indeed cool (it's essentially two Mi-6 power units with a new fuselage) it had some pretty severe "ground resonance" problems -- vibrations due to the downwash were so severe they caused structural damage.
As far as the Mi-26 is concerned, another way to visualize the size is this: the cargo bay of the "Halo" is the same size as that of the C-130 Hercules transport.
Lastly, while you did include the Chinook, the Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion/MH-53E Sea Dragon (Sikorsky S-80) has a higher payload, both slung or internal, and a higher top speed than the Chinook: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CH-53E_Super_Stallion
"...this powerhouse could lift 26,000 pounds of cargo (12 tons)..."
Should be 13 tons. Just thought I'd point that out.
Interesting article!
While not a giant helicopter per-se, one of the strangest experiments with cargo lifters was the helistat:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helistat
Four helicopters were attached to a giant blimp. A disastrous crash at Lakehurst, NJ, pretty much ended the experiment.
markj:
Maybe not, check out the Boeing JHL-40.
http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2008/q3/080708c_nr.html
Agreed though, Frank Piasecki, who probably knows more about multiple-rotor helicopters than anyone really should have known better than to come up with something like the Helistat.
And the BIG helicopter:
http://www.daweidesigns.com/images/webpics/littleheli.jpg
Why build BIGGER. The CH-47 can pretty much carry most anything the U.S. Army needs for field ops. The CH-47 airframe as been around now for forty plus years. Which might lend it to be one of the best designed rotor wing ships in the world. Nothing can do what it does better! Few can fly faster or higher. I am talking 14.000,00 Ft. mountain rescues. The Chinook can do that and more.
you missed the weird and wonderful syncrocopters
Verry nice job you did on this. Mi-12 is hot!
one of the giant Mil V-12 was recently converted to a flying hotel, chek this out:
http://hotelicopter.com/
WOW ! The Soviet ones are huge ! Great post. Thanks.
The office I work in has certification oversight of Columbia Helicopters and a couple other big players in the heavy lift market. We had a poster size print of the Columbia helicopter pulling the barge in the office, amazing to see.
Is that the captain seat of V-22 Ospray is the right the left?
Thank u very much. Great post.
If you're going to mention Soviet stealth choppers, you should at least mention the Comanche on the U.S. side.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAH-66_Comanche
The Ka-58 listed in your post was a fake. The original was a scale model created by Italeri in the 1980s. The molds were later acquired by the Russian manufacturer Zvezda. The design has since appeared in various computer games, and the Kamov bureau added it to their products page as a joke.
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