1
00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,160
Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how

2
00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:14,680
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

3
00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:17,959
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with

4
00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:20,279
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works in I heart radio and I love

5
00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:24,000
Speaker 1: all things tech. And it's time for another classic episode,

6
00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:28,600
Speaker 1: and this one, which originally published on February twenty seven,

7
00:00:28,840 --> 00:00:32,720
Speaker 1: two thousand twelve, Chris Palette and I talk about how

8
00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:36,920
Speaker 1: helicopters work. As I recall, the Marines say that the

9
00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:41,760
Speaker 1: helicopters fly by beating the air into submission. So, without

10
00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:45,760
Speaker 1: further ado, let's get to chop off. We're gonna talk

11
00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:49,320
Speaker 1: about helicopters today. Yes, and it's rising that we haven't

12
00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:51,520
Speaker 1: talked about it before. Yeah. Well, when you start looking

13
00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:55,840
Speaker 1: into what is involved in making a helicopter work, I

14
00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:58,760
Speaker 1: can see exactly why we haven't done it before. Well,

15
00:00:58,800 --> 00:01:01,120
Speaker 1: you know the helicopter business US have it have its

16
00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:03,480
Speaker 1: ups and down. Yeah. Nice, I like how you did that.

17
00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:07,880
Speaker 1: Um yeah, So so let's talk about helicopters. So, I'm

18
00:01:07,920 --> 00:01:10,600
Speaker 1: sure all of you are familiar with the concept of

19
00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:14,800
Speaker 1: a helicopter, but when did these things? How did how

20
00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:16,680
Speaker 1: did we come up with this idea? When did this

21
00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:22,080
Speaker 1: originally spring to mind. Okay, well, uh, you know, it

22
00:01:22,840 --> 00:01:25,280
Speaker 1: is something that has been on my mind since I

23
00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:28,280
Speaker 1: was a kid. I've always loved helicopters. So the other

24
00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:31,360
Speaker 1: day Jonathan sent me a video that I couldn't watch

25
00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:35,000
Speaker 1: because my current bandwidth was too low on my Internet connection,

26
00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:37,440
Speaker 1: and it took me two days to actually watch it.

27
00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:42,360
Speaker 1: But it was a video of some very tiny quadricopters. Yeah,

28
00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:45,800
Speaker 1: they were called nano quadricopters in the video itself, although

29
00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:49,280
Speaker 1: that is a misnomer since nano typically means one billion.

30
00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:53,280
Speaker 1: And they were not that small. No, they fit on

31
00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:55,240
Speaker 1: the palm of someone's hand. Yeah, they're about the size

32
00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:57,680
Speaker 1: of the palm of your hand. And uh, I was

33
00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:01,880
Speaker 1: thinking about how, uh, how unusual the quadracopter is because

34
00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:06,360
Speaker 1: it doesn't have a tail roader like a traditional helicopter does. Um. Yeah,

35
00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:10,000
Speaker 1: they're very very maneuverable. Um and uh and I thought,

36
00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:12,559
Speaker 1: you know, hey, Jonathan, why don't we talk about helicopters

37
00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:14,840
Speaker 1: because we never really talked about them before. So, right,

38
00:02:14,919 --> 00:02:17,080
Speaker 1: so that's how I came to mind. Yeah, that's how

39
00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:19,280
Speaker 1: I came to mind. Now, how how the idea of

40
00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:22,760
Speaker 1: a helicopter actually came to mind for human beings in general.

41
00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:27,640
Speaker 1: That dates back pretty far in human history. And it

42
00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:31,080
Speaker 1: all begins with a toy. Yeah, you know, and I

43
00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:34,840
Speaker 1: think just about everybody who's gone to their school fair

44
00:02:34,919 --> 00:02:36,720
Speaker 1: or whatever is one one of these little you know,

45
00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:40,320
Speaker 1: seventy two cent uh stick with a propeller on it

46
00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:42,000
Speaker 1: and you spin in the palm of your hand and

47
00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:45,760
Speaker 1: let go and it'll fly up and then crash down

48
00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:48,800
Speaker 1: to the earth. But they weren't always made from plastic, no, No,

49
00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:53,800
Speaker 1: they were. The Chinese had a little top that they

50
00:02:53,919 --> 00:02:57,919
Speaker 1: used where the top was had feathers on it, Yes,

51
00:02:58,000 --> 00:02:59,560
Speaker 1: and it did the same sort of thing. You would

52
00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:02,040
Speaker 1: put a put the stick between your hands, the feathers

53
00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:04,079
Speaker 1: will be at the top. You spin the stick very quickly.

54
00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:06,840
Speaker 1: The feathers would spin and it would create some lift

55
00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:08,680
Speaker 1: and the sick would fly up in the air and

56
00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:12,480
Speaker 1: then come back down. Pretty simple, yep. And as it

57
00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:16,000
Speaker 1: turns out to the concept is is pretty simple. Basically,

58
00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:20,239
Speaker 1: you're you're creating an air foil. Yes, Um that instead

59
00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:24,399
Speaker 1: of like an airplane wing where you're going forward, Um,

60
00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:27,720
Speaker 1: it is going straight up simply because um, the the

61
00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:30,440
Speaker 1: air that that moves over the air foil, it creates

62
00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:33,720
Speaker 1: lift is taking it straight up instead of forward. Yes,

63
00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:37,160
Speaker 1: So I guess to to really kind of discuss this,

64
00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:39,840
Speaker 1: we should probably talk about a little bit about the

65
00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:43,480
Speaker 1: parts of a helicopter, so that way we can explain

66
00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:47,680
Speaker 1: what these these parts actually do and how they achieve flight.

67
00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:52,920
Speaker 1: So the blades that we talk about, that's a rotor, right,

68
00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:56,800
Speaker 1: So the rotors are affixed to a rotor mast. That's

69
00:03:56,840 --> 00:04:00,160
Speaker 1: the part that actually creates the the turning motion, and

70
00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:02,840
Speaker 1: that makes the blades go round in a circle. And

71
00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:06,840
Speaker 1: the blades themselves are angled and they can that angle

72
00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:10,840
Speaker 1: can change depending upon a control um. There are different

73
00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:14,480
Speaker 1: control rods that can change the the um the attitude

74
00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:18,320
Speaker 1: of those blades. So you have, uh, two of them.

75
00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:22,800
Speaker 1: Actually there's the cyclic controller which can control them individually. Yes,

76
00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:25,520
Speaker 1: that's also known as the stick, right, Yeah, that's the

77
00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:27,880
Speaker 1: that's the stick. And then there's a was it the

78
00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:31,400
Speaker 1: collective one, right, yes, the collective pitch lever. What that

79
00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:34,919
Speaker 1: does is it actually changes the attitude of all of

80
00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:38,640
Speaker 1: the rotors, the main rotors at the same time. Um.

81
00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:41,919
Speaker 1: And that both of those are important for various maneuvers

82
00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:43,920
Speaker 1: with the helicopter. But we'll get into that in a second.

83
00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:48,279
Speaker 1: There's also with the rotors, there's a a stabilizer. Because

84
00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:51,719
Speaker 1: you've got these long air foils that are extending out

85
00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:55,400
Speaker 1: from a shaft and they're turning around and around. There's

86
00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:57,320
Speaker 1: a chance that they're gonna start, you know, flopping around

87
00:04:57,360 --> 00:05:00,120
Speaker 1: a little bit, causing some issues, you know, of the

88
00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:03,480
Speaker 1: stabilizer is there to help add some rigidity there so

89
00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:07,919
Speaker 1: that these blades will will maintain the right shape so

90
00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:10,600
Speaker 1: that you can fly. It's kind of funny too, because

91
00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:13,000
Speaker 1: apparently it was just one of those things that someone

92
00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:17,960
Speaker 1: added to the helicopter um uh And as as it

93
00:05:17,960 --> 00:05:20,800
Speaker 1: turns out, it it made a major improvement in the

94
00:05:20,839 --> 00:05:24,839
Speaker 1: stability and and flyability of helicopters. Yeah, the early helicopters

95
00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:27,320
Speaker 1: when they were flying, it was a pretty bumpy ride

96
00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:30,680
Speaker 1: and it was definitely a challenge for a pilot to

97
00:05:30,839 --> 00:05:35,000
Speaker 1: maintain control because it just you know, without that stabilizer,

98
00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:38,480
Speaker 1: it just like you were saying, it just wasn't as fliable.

99
00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:42,480
Speaker 1: So it was definitely a good addition to the parts

100
00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:46,920
Speaker 1: of a helicopter. There's a there's a there are two

101
00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:51,599
Speaker 1: plates they are on the rotor mast, all right, that

102
00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:55,560
Speaker 1: that also are a big part of the helicopter. It's

103
00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:59,719
Speaker 1: called the upper swash plate and the lower swash plate.

104
00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:03,000
Speaker 1: And despite what you might think, they are not joined

105
00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:08,480
Speaker 1: by a swash buckle. Instead, if you imagine that, they

106
00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:12,960
Speaker 1: imagine two plates to two round plates, right, and they're

107
00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:16,040
Speaker 1: both they both have the the shaft of the motor

108
00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:19,839
Speaker 1: of the rotor rather goes straight through these two plates.

109
00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:23,919
Speaker 1: The lower plate is stationary, it does not turn. On

110
00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:27,279
Speaker 1: top of the lower plate are ball bearings, yes, And

111
00:06:27,320 --> 00:06:29,680
Speaker 1: then on top of the ball bearings is the upper swashplate,

112
00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:32,520
Speaker 1: which does turn. The ball bearings are what allow it

113
00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:36,440
Speaker 1: to turn over. The lower swashplate, now the swashplate. The

114
00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:39,000
Speaker 1: reason that's important is remember when I was talking about

115
00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:43,200
Speaker 1: the collective the collective control that changes the attitude of

116
00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:46,320
Speaker 1: all the blades at the same time that what that

117
00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:50,320
Speaker 1: actually does is it allows that plate to tilt either

118
00:06:50,400 --> 00:06:53,560
Speaker 1: forward or backward, or however you need it to, so

119
00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:57,040
Speaker 1: that you can make the helicopter veer in the direction

120
00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:00,760
Speaker 1: you want it to go. Because really, until this point,

121
00:07:01,160 --> 00:07:03,120
Speaker 1: what we were doing was going up and down. We

122
00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:06,640
Speaker 1: weren't going left or right, or over that way or

123
00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:10,120
Speaker 1: back this way. Because if you try, if you have

124
00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:11,960
Speaker 1: one of those toys that we were talking about before.

125
00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:15,160
Speaker 1: With the blade on the stick, you point it straight

126
00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:17,280
Speaker 1: up and it goes straight up, and then it'll drift

127
00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:18,800
Speaker 1: off a little bit to the side, but you don't

128
00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:21,560
Speaker 1: really control that. If you pointed it, you know at

129
00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:24,880
Speaker 1: your friend, it's going to go in his or her direction.

130
00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:28,840
Speaker 1: And that's what the swash plates allow the pilot of

131
00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:31,160
Speaker 1: the helicopter to do it. It helps filp the blades

132
00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:34,400
Speaker 1: and and the helicopter starts flying in that direction. Yes,

133
00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:37,680
Speaker 1: because it adds it adds a second element. Right, you

134
00:07:37,720 --> 00:07:40,160
Speaker 1: first have the first element you have is lift, Right,

135
00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:43,080
Speaker 1: The second element you would have is thrust. Yes, so

136
00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:45,880
Speaker 1: when you start to change the attitude of the blades,

137
00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:48,160
Speaker 1: you have both lift and thrust. Now, there is a

138
00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:51,320
Speaker 1: point where if you were to tilt that beyond a

139
00:07:51,400 --> 00:07:54,960
Speaker 1: certain threshold, you would no longer have enough lift to

140
00:07:56,200 --> 00:07:58,880
Speaker 1: counteract the weight of the helicopter itself, and it would

141
00:07:58,880 --> 00:08:01,840
Speaker 1: start to lose altitude. They might be moving forward, but

142
00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:04,400
Speaker 1: it's going to be going lower and lower until you

143
00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:08,200
Speaker 1: correct that. And that's one of the reasons why UH

144
00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:11,560
Speaker 1: piloting a helicopter is so challenging. In fact, when we

145
00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:14,040
Speaker 1: get into the different controls. You'll find out you're using

146
00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:16,520
Speaker 1: both your legs and both your arms to try and

147
00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:20,440
Speaker 1: maneuver a helicopter, and so it takes a lot of concentration. Yeah. Yeah,

148
00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:22,520
Speaker 1: it's also why you don't see a lot of people

149
00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:27,240
Speaker 1: flying helicopters and loop to loops. Yeah, that's let's their

150
00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:30,800
Speaker 1: air wolf that right. Yeah, but then no, that is

151
00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:33,280
Speaker 1: true because once you get beyond that certain threshold, you

152
00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:35,520
Speaker 1: no longer have the lift necessary to keep you in

153
00:08:35,559 --> 00:08:38,760
Speaker 1: the air. Uh. And these blades are connected to that

154
00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:42,400
Speaker 1: rotor mast through blade grips, that's the technical term for

155
00:08:42,520 --> 00:08:45,440
Speaker 1: where the blades fit into this rotor mast. And on

156
00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:47,520
Speaker 1: the very top of the rotor mast, you have something

157
00:08:47,520 --> 00:08:52,160
Speaker 1: that's that's got an interesting name. Yes, the Jesus nut. Yes,

158
00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:54,560
Speaker 1: it really is called that. It's called the Jesus nut.

159
00:08:54,640 --> 00:08:58,000
Speaker 1: And uh, there are various furies as to why it's

160
00:08:58,000 --> 00:08:59,920
Speaker 1: called that, and I don't know what any of I

161
00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:02,040
Speaker 1: don't know the truth of any of them. Yes, the

162
00:09:02,040 --> 00:09:04,040
Speaker 1: one that we have an article on the site. Yes,

163
00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:06,240
Speaker 1: it's a it's a really good article too, with lots

164
00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:09,520
Speaker 1: of really helpful illustrations. So if you are interested in

165
00:09:09,520 --> 00:09:11,640
Speaker 1: helicopters and you really want to get a look at

166
00:09:11,679 --> 00:09:14,679
Speaker 1: what these different parts look like. I highly recommend you

167
00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:16,920
Speaker 1: check it out because it's it's one of the more

168
00:09:16,960 --> 00:09:20,240
Speaker 1: exhaustive articles on the site. I would say, yeah, I would,

169
00:09:20,240 --> 00:09:24,080
Speaker 1: I would agree with that and very very illustrative what

170
00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:28,800
Speaker 1: you're doing here when you're flying a helicopter. Um. So, yeah,

171
00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:32,239
Speaker 1: we were talking about the tail rotor just a moment ago. Yes, Um,

172
00:09:32,480 --> 00:09:35,760
Speaker 1: very important in the in the design of a helicopter.

173
00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:38,679
Speaker 1: So here's another thing about helicopters. You've got this blade

174
00:09:38,679 --> 00:09:40,800
Speaker 1: turning around and around, this creating lift, and when the

175
00:09:40,840 --> 00:09:43,640
Speaker 1: lift gets strong enough to counteract the weight of the

176
00:09:43,679 --> 00:09:46,360
Speaker 1: helicopter is going to rise in the air. Without a

177
00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:49,640
Speaker 1: tail rotor. Yeah, if you've ever wondered why that's there. Yeah,

178
00:09:49,679 --> 00:09:52,679
Speaker 1: without a tail rotor, which is that little, that little

179
00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:55,679
Speaker 1: smaller propeller that's on the end of the tail of

180
00:09:55,720 --> 00:09:59,440
Speaker 1: a helicopter. Without it, the body of the helicopter itself

181
00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:03,120
Speaker 1: would start spin in a direction opposite that of the rotors.

182
00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:06,840
Speaker 1: So if the rotors are spinning in a clockwise direction,

183
00:10:06,920 --> 00:10:08,920
Speaker 1: then the helicopter will start to spin in a wider

184
00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:12,160
Speaker 1: Shian's direction. You just wanted to use, Yes, I did

185
00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:15,120
Speaker 1: so badly counterclockwise. For those of you who do not

186
00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:19,480
Speaker 1: speak archaic English, hey, where are my Shakespeare Homi's at

187
00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:23,640
Speaker 1: So anyway, Yes, the the helicopter would spin without any

188
00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:26,880
Speaker 1: other other force to counteract this, the helicopter would start

189
00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:29,320
Speaker 1: to spin in the opposite direction, which would probably be

190
00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:34,559
Speaker 1: an unpleasant experience for anyone inside that helicopter. Yes, yeah,

191
00:10:34,679 --> 00:10:37,120
Speaker 1: so the rotor What that does is it helps to

192
00:10:37,160 --> 00:10:40,720
Speaker 1: create thrust to counteract the spinning motion so that the

193
00:10:40,760 --> 00:10:44,839
Speaker 1: helicopter stays stationary. And by controlling the speed of that rotor,

194
00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:48,480
Speaker 1: you can actually turn the helicopter to the left or

195
00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:51,400
Speaker 1: to the right, not banking it. But actually if you're

196
00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:54,080
Speaker 1: in if you're hovering in place, you can change the

197
00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:58,120
Speaker 1: speed that that rotor turns and then turn your helicopter

198
00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:00,679
Speaker 1: so it's facing an opposite direction, so if it started

199
00:11:00,679 --> 00:11:03,160
Speaker 1: facing north, you can maybe face west. That kind of thing.

200
00:11:04,240 --> 00:11:07,760
Speaker 1: And of course, uh, for for this, we have a

201
00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:10,800
Speaker 1: a guy named Igor to to thank for that. Yes,

202
00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:14,600
Speaker 1: Igor did a great job. Of all the people who

203
00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:20,800
Speaker 1: experimented with the idea of being able to levitate a person,

204
00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:23,320
Speaker 1: I mean there were there were many, including a our

205
00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:27,000
Speaker 1: our friend Leo, Yeah, Leonardo da Vinci yea. Yeah, he

206
00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:29,800
Speaker 1: tried to create something that he called the air screw,

207
00:11:29,960 --> 00:11:32,280
Speaker 1: which was a screw shape, and the idea was that

208
00:11:32,440 --> 00:11:36,520
Speaker 1: with four people powering this man powered, of course back

209
00:11:36,559 --> 00:11:39,520
Speaker 1: in Leo's day, that if you were able to turn

210
00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:41,760
Speaker 1: this air screw fast enough, it would be able to

211
00:11:41,760 --> 00:11:45,400
Speaker 1: create enough lift to lift the machine off the ground. Now,

212
00:11:45,559 --> 00:11:49,160
Speaker 1: he never got this to work, but it was sort

213
00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:51,360
Speaker 1: of the basis of the idea of what would eventually

214
00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:55,080
Speaker 1: become a helicopter, although it changed dramatically by the time

215
00:11:55,120 --> 00:11:59,880
Speaker 1: the helicopter actually appeared. Yep. Now, Igor Sikorsky, if you

216
00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:03,719
Speaker 1: spend any time at all paying attention to helicopters, that

217
00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:06,040
Speaker 1: name is going to be very familiar to you. Um

218
00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:09,599
Speaker 1: was a Russian who experimented with the idea of helicopters

219
00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:11,720
Speaker 1: and then kind of moved away to get into other

220
00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:14,920
Speaker 1: types of airplane flight and then sort of came back

221
00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:17,480
Speaker 1: to it later on. Yea, His early attempts were not

222
00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:21,040
Speaker 1: met with very much success. Now, so he decided, hey,

223
00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:23,680
Speaker 1: you know what, let's just put this on the back

224
00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:25,800
Speaker 1: burner and look at something that I know will work.

225
00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:30,720
Speaker 1: And then eventually, once he felt more confident, he revisited

226
00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:33,720
Speaker 1: this idea of the helicopter. Yeah, back in the around

227
00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:36,480
Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties, I think is when when he started

228
00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:38,640
Speaker 1: really having some luck with it and he realized that

229
00:12:38,920 --> 00:12:42,040
Speaker 1: he was going to need something to prevent the helicopter

230
00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:45,320
Speaker 1: body from spinning like that without any kind of force.

231
00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:49,160
Speaker 1: So he decided to mount a tail rotor on his

232
00:12:49,280 --> 00:12:53,000
Speaker 1: helicopter too. And basically it's it's creating force in a

233
00:12:53,080 --> 00:12:56,760
Speaker 1: sideways manner that that is resisting the force that that

234
00:12:56,800 --> 00:13:01,480
Speaker 1: would naturally cause the helicopter to turn. So um, you know,

235
00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:05,480
Speaker 1: hats off to igor. Yeah, and that was a brilliant idea.

236
00:13:05,720 --> 00:13:08,880
Speaker 1: It was the nineteen thirty nine when he created the

237
00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:13,240
Speaker 1: VS three hundred, which was based off these early designs,

238
00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:15,640
Speaker 1: and it actually worked. It lifted him up into the air.

239
00:13:16,200 --> 00:13:18,280
Speaker 1: It was a bit of a bumpy ride. But then

240
00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:21,319
Speaker 1: he ended up trying to uh, you know, he refined

241
00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:26,120
Speaker 1: the design of it and then um, actually had broke

242
00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:30,319
Speaker 1: a record. On May six one, he broke the world

243
00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:34,840
Speaker 1: helicopter endurance record and stayed in the air for one hour,

244
00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:39,600
Speaker 1: thirty two minutes and twenty six point one seconds. And yeah,

245
00:13:39,640 --> 00:13:43,800
Speaker 1: that's that's pretty impressive. I mean, for for an invention

246
00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:46,440
Speaker 1: that people had played with for centuries really, but no

247
00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:49,319
Speaker 1: one had really cracked it. It was a big jump.

248
00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:51,960
Speaker 1: And speaking of jumps, we should say that between the

249
00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:55,080
Speaker 1: time of the the top toy that was invented in

250
00:13:55,200 --> 00:13:59,520
Speaker 1: ancient China and the time that Sikorski created the first

251
00:14:00,520 --> 00:14:03,640
Speaker 1: working helicopter, there were a lot of other people who

252
00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:06,760
Speaker 1: were involved in trying to make this work, and some

253
00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:11,520
Speaker 1: of their contributions led into Sikorski's work. Yes, but a

254
00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:14,520
Speaker 1: lot of these early inventions that were created we call

255
00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:18,320
Speaker 1: them hoppers because they could they could lift off the

256
00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:21,720
Speaker 1: ground briefly, but they couldn't really sustain flight for any

257
00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:23,960
Speaker 1: length of time, and they didn't really have any way

258
00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:26,840
Speaker 1: of changing the direction of that flight. It just would

259
00:14:26,880 --> 00:14:29,880
Speaker 1: go up and down, I mean, apart from being pushed

260
00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:33,720
Speaker 1: around by whatever wind happened to be in the area. Yeah,

261
00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:36,600
Speaker 1: being pushed around by wind, that's not a problem. But

262
00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:39,680
Speaker 1: then so he breaks the record. It turns out that,

263
00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:43,200
Speaker 1: you know, the helicopters would become really important in warfare.

264
00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:48,280
Speaker 1: That actually became a very uh well, the United States

265
00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:52,560
Speaker 1: in particular really dependent upon helicopters in conflicts in Korea

266
00:14:52,640 --> 00:14:56,680
Speaker 1: and Vietnam. Hey, you know I've seen mash Yeah, yeah,

267
00:14:56,720 --> 00:15:01,040
Speaker 1: it starts off with one through early morning guy. See

268
00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:07,360
Speaker 1: uh yeah, And this was this was a pretty interesting development.

269
00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:11,080
Speaker 1: I mean you see a lot of of the experimental

270
00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:16,840
Speaker 1: aircraft from that era just became oddities. Yes, yes, which

271
00:15:17,160 --> 00:15:19,880
Speaker 1: you can still find autogyros. And we should explain what

272
00:15:19,880 --> 00:15:22,800
Speaker 1: the difference between an autogyro and a helicopter is. So

273
00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:25,760
Speaker 1: with a helicopter, those rotors were talking about, those are

274
00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:29,920
Speaker 1: powered that that rotor mast turns underpower. There's an engine

275
00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:33,080
Speaker 1: and a transmission. The engine provides power, transmission converts it

276
00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:35,960
Speaker 1: over into the mechanical energy that the rotors need in

277
00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:41,120
Speaker 1: order to turn, and that is what makes the the

278
00:15:41,160 --> 00:15:44,560
Speaker 1: blades turn fast enough to create the lift. Autogyros have

279
00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:50,200
Speaker 1: unpowered rotors, so there is a there there is a

280
00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:52,680
Speaker 1: set of rotors on top of an autogyro, so in

281
00:15:52,680 --> 00:15:55,680
Speaker 1: a way it kind of resembles like a miniature helicopter.

282
00:15:56,320 --> 00:15:58,560
Speaker 1: But then there's a propeller that's either in the front

283
00:15:58,680 --> 00:16:01,080
Speaker 1: or the back of the autogyro. It all depends on

284
00:16:01,120 --> 00:16:04,640
Speaker 1: the design of a specific autogyro, which what that's what

285
00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:09,120
Speaker 1: provides thrust and what happens is it generates an air

286
00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:12,560
Speaker 1: flow that is directed up at the rotors that are

287
00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:16,640
Speaker 1: above the autogyro, and that that upward flowing amount of

288
00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:19,760
Speaker 1: air is what makes the blades start to turn. And

289
00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:23,120
Speaker 1: you just keep increasing the air flow, which again makes

290
00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:27,320
Speaker 1: the blades turn faster until that helps counteract the weight

291
00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:29,960
Speaker 1: of the autogyro. And that's what allows the autogyro to fly.

292
00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:33,640
Speaker 1: But there's no motor turning those blades. It's all just

293
00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:36,760
Speaker 1: from the flow of air. Yeah. As a matter of fact,

294
00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:41,080
Speaker 1: some now, some of the more modern helicopters also have

295
00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:44,240
Speaker 1: a second engine, which can help you know, of course

296
00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:47,040
Speaker 1: if in the case of the first engine going out,

297
00:16:47,680 --> 00:16:51,000
Speaker 1: um but you know there there's some redundancy there, uh

298
00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:55,680
Speaker 1: now in the more modern helicopters, especially for military helicopters

299
00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:59,840
Speaker 1: that might be affected by enemy fire. Right sure, Yeah,

300
00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:02,000
Speaker 1: you have an engine failure, then you can switch over

301
00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:06,960
Speaker 1: to a second engine and hopefully prevent catastrophe. So let's

302
00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:09,840
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the controls that are inside

303
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,720
Speaker 1: a helicopter. Of course, you have lots of different um

304
00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:16,800
Speaker 1: uh dials and indicators that give you information about the

305
00:17:16,880 --> 00:17:22,160
Speaker 1: environment and uh information about your helicopter's performance. Those are

306
00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:25,600
Speaker 1: all there's they're too numerous to name, really, but the

307
00:17:25,720 --> 00:17:28,120
Speaker 1: actual controls. When we were talking about using both your

308
00:17:28,119 --> 00:17:31,240
Speaker 1: hands and both your feet, well, one hand is gonna

309
00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:34,680
Speaker 1: be on that cyclic pitch lever. So this is the

310
00:17:34,800 --> 00:17:38,000
Speaker 1: lever that controls the angle of each of the rotor

311
00:17:38,040 --> 00:17:42,399
Speaker 1: blades individually. And uh this one is used mainly to

312
00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:46,000
Speaker 1: tilt the craft at either side or forward and backward.

313
00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:51,639
Speaker 1: But it's it's done in uh very it's not it's

314
00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:54,240
Speaker 1: it's not the one that changes the swashplate. That's the

315
00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:57,040
Speaker 1: collective pitch leaver. So that's that's your second one that

316
00:17:57,040 --> 00:17:59,880
Speaker 1: you're holding with your other hand. Um. It's mainly used

317
00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:03,280
Speaker 1: things like take off and landing. It's used to increase

318
00:18:03,359 --> 00:18:05,639
Speaker 1: or decrease the pitch of all the rotor blades at

319
00:18:05,640 --> 00:18:09,240
Speaker 1: the same time. And it's mostly responsible for up and

320
00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:12,960
Speaker 1: down movements, not things like forward, backward, left, right. Uh.

321
00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,960
Speaker 1: Then you've got your foot pedals and these are what

322
00:18:16,119 --> 00:18:21,360
Speaker 1: control the tail rotor, and so using the the tail rotors,

323
00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:25,159
Speaker 1: this is how you can turn the the helicopter so

324
00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:28,600
Speaker 1: it faces a different direction. You're not banking it, but

325
00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:31,080
Speaker 1: you're turning it. Um or you're using it just to

326
00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:34,680
Speaker 1: keep it steady. Uh. And and if you're wondering, you know, well,

327
00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:38,280
Speaker 1: what about hovering? Isn't that easy? No, Hovering is actually

328
00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:42,199
Speaker 1: pretty difficult to do because you have to you have

329
00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:45,119
Speaker 1: to get everything in a neutral position, and then you

330
00:18:45,119 --> 00:18:48,280
Speaker 1: have to keep making minor adjustments in order to maintain

331
00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:50,919
Speaker 1: the position that you're in. In fact, pilots will have

332
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:55,520
Speaker 1: to pick a spot that they can look at and

333
00:18:55,840 --> 00:19:00,280
Speaker 1: try and maintain their attitude and altitude uh by by

334
00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:05,920
Speaker 1: referencing where that spot is and making minor adjustments constantly. Yes. Yeah,

335
00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:09,920
Speaker 1: and it helps to uh to have um uh an

336
00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:13,960
Speaker 1: experienced pilot on board, just because not only is there

337
00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:19,520
Speaker 1: the matter of looking at the electronic components in the

338
00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:24,240
Speaker 1: craft itself, but to orient him or herself with the

339
00:19:24,359 --> 00:19:28,159
Speaker 1: land around, just to to give a visual representation of

340
00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:30,200
Speaker 1: what's going on. And that's that's one of those things

341
00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:34,520
Speaker 1: that's especially important. Because the wind does blow helicopters around.

342
00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:38,200
Speaker 1: You have to take these things into into account, and

343
00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:40,119
Speaker 1: um one of the best ways to do that is

344
00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:42,560
Speaker 1: to use that visual orientation to make sure that you

345
00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:48,160
Speaker 1: haven't drifted off to some degree. Now, let's talk really

346
00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:50,520
Speaker 1: quickly about what the process is like if you are

347
00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:56,600
Speaker 1: taking off helicopter, So there's several steps. First, what you

348
00:19:56,600 --> 00:19:58,840
Speaker 1: would have to do is you have to open up

349
00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:01,800
Speaker 1: the throttle that you and speed up these rotors so

350
00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:03,720
Speaker 1: that they start turning out a speed fast enough to

351
00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:06,239
Speaker 1: create the amount of lift you need. UM you do

352
00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:08,560
Speaker 1: this by actually twisting the handle of one of the

353
00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:12,000
Speaker 1: levers you're holding in your hands and twisting it one

354
00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:14,240
Speaker 1: way opens the throttle and twisting it the other way

355
00:20:14,359 --> 00:20:17,320
Speaker 1: closes the throttle. So that's you know, that's essentially like

356
00:20:17,359 --> 00:20:22,359
Speaker 1: sitting stepping on the accelerator of a of an automobile. UM.

357
00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:25,040
Speaker 1: So the next what you would do, once you've got

358
00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:28,720
Speaker 1: the the rotors moving at the right speed, you'd start

359
00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:32,960
Speaker 1: to pull back on the collective control and that's what's

360
00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:37,080
Speaker 1: going to raise the swashplate assembly and that's going to

361
00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:39,720
Speaker 1: change the pitch of the rotor blades, and then that's

362
00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:43,720
Speaker 1: what's going to let you direct that lift the in

363
00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:46,199
Speaker 1: the right direction so that you can actually get off

364
00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:51,560
Speaker 1: the ground. Then you would start to press down on

365
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:55,920
Speaker 1: the left foot pedal because you would need to get

366
00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:59,760
Speaker 1: the tail rotor spinning so that you could counteract that torque.

367
00:20:59,800 --> 00:21:02,440
Speaker 1: We we're talking about the the the tendency for the

368
00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:05,359
Speaker 1: chassis to spend in the opposite direction of the rotors.

369
00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:07,320
Speaker 1: Right as soon as you're lifting off the ground, you're

370
00:21:07,320 --> 00:21:09,640
Speaker 1: going to be it's going to be much easier for

371
00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:12,639
Speaker 1: the rotors to start to spin the body of the helicopter,

372
00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:14,880
Speaker 1: the fuselage. Yes, so if you weren't, if you were

373
00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:18,080
Speaker 1: not making that rotor tail rotor spin, you would start

374
00:21:18,119 --> 00:21:20,679
Speaker 1: to go on a little spinny spinny d it yourself,

375
00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:24,680
Speaker 1: which would most likely end in disaster. Yeah, so yeah,

376
00:21:24,800 --> 00:21:30,520
Speaker 1: you you then would start to actually add a counteractive

377
00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:35,160
Speaker 1: thrust through the tail rotor by pressing down that left pedal. Now,

378
00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:36,560
Speaker 1: if you got to a point where you needed to

379
00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:39,080
Speaker 1: turn or you need to slow that down, you could

380
00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:42,640
Speaker 1: stop pressing down the left pedal and start pressing down

381
00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:46,320
Speaker 1: the right pedal, and that's what would counteract that. Um.

382
00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:49,800
Speaker 1: Then you keep pulling back on that collective control while

383
00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:52,960
Speaker 1: holding down the left foot pedal, and once the correct

384
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:57,000
Speaker 1: amount of lift is created, your helicopter will leave the

385
00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:01,080
Speaker 1: ground and you'll be flying over the air and delivering

386
00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:07,560
Speaker 1: traffic reports like nobody's business. All right, let's uh, let's

387
00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:11,080
Speaker 1: take a quick break. I'm still recovering from my truly

388
00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:16,800
Speaker 1: awful and unrecognizable Schwarzenegger uh impersonation. Let's take a quick

389
00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:29,120
Speaker 1: break to think our sponsors. Yeah, it's um, it's pretty interesting. Uh.

390
00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:33,359
Speaker 1: And there's even other challenges to flying a helicopter, right,

391
00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:35,800
Speaker 1: I mean, not only is it requiring a lot of coordination,

392
00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:40,240
Speaker 1: but even just the way that the air flight works.

393
00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:43,639
Speaker 1: When you start traveling, say forward, you're moving forward at

394
00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:48,199
Speaker 1: at around UM twenty knots of airspeed, you have to

395
00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:52,040
Speaker 1: end up transitioning, transitioning from hovering, which is more or

396
00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:57,440
Speaker 1: less staying fairly stationary, to moving on a full forward

397
00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:01,879
Speaker 1: flight phase. And there's that's where you have the effective

398
00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:07,000
Speaker 1: translational lift or et L. And at that point the

399
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:09,640
Speaker 1: pilot would start to ease up on that left foot

400
00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:13,200
Speaker 1: pedal and move closer to a neutral setting. And there's

401
00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:16,400
Speaker 1: gonna be a shutter that you'd feel through the rotor

402
00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:20,480
Speaker 1: system because you are going to fly out of what

403
00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:24,200
Speaker 1: is called rotor wash. And rotor wash is not where

404
00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:28,040
Speaker 1: you go to a place where people start pouring sud

405
00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:30,680
Speaker 1: sea water all over your rotor blades and then squirt

406
00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:33,320
Speaker 1: them down. It's not that's not a rotor wash. Rotor

407
00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:36,920
Speaker 1: wash is actually turbulence which is created by these rotor

408
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:41,040
Speaker 1: blades turning so quickly, and you fly through your own turbulence.

409
00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:44,400
Speaker 1: Then once you get to a certain angle, that turbulence

410
00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:47,960
Speaker 1: is not no longer directed in your flight path, and

411
00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:52,640
Speaker 1: you end up having this much more smooth experience. So

412
00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:55,680
Speaker 1: before you hit that, that flying in that helicopter might

413
00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:59,240
Speaker 1: feel a little well, pardon the pun, but choppy, because

414
00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:02,920
Speaker 1: you just you know, you're actually flying through turbulence that

415
00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:07,280
Speaker 1: you have created through the helicopter itself. Um. By the way,

416
00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:09,399
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever heard this, but I

417
00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:11,680
Speaker 1: have friends who were in the Marines, and they said

418
00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:15,000
Speaker 1: that the way the Marines would explain helicopters, as they say,

419
00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:20,240
Speaker 1: helicopters fly by beating the air into submission, which is

420
00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:25,720
Speaker 1: a very Marines kind of thing, Simper five. So the yeah,

421
00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:30,640
Speaker 1: it's a it's a pretty interesting method of flight. It's

422
00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:33,159
Speaker 1: amazing to me even seeing them now. I mean, you

423
00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:36,080
Speaker 1: can see them helicopters outside the windows of our office

424
00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:39,080
Speaker 1: fairly frequently. We're in a part of Atlanta where we'll

425
00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:43,159
Speaker 1: see traffic helicopters or news helicopters fly overhead. Um and

426
00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:45,919
Speaker 1: In fact, when the article was being written for the site,

427
00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:49,640
Speaker 1: Marshall Brain, the founder of how Stuff Works, had contacted

428
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:53,560
Speaker 1: a company in Atlanta that did helicopter tours and helicopter

429
00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:56,320
Speaker 1: pilots worked for him and managed to get the president

430
00:24:56,320 --> 00:24:59,480
Speaker 1: of the company to agree to fly a helicopter so

431
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:01,879
Speaker 1: that we could get some video, which led to one

432
00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:05,080
Speaker 1: of the more famous incidents and how stuff works, where

433
00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:10,520
Speaker 1: this helicopter pilot uh flew relatively close to the building

434
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:14,639
Speaker 1: and anyone who was on our floor knew what was

435
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:18,159
Speaker 1: going on, well not even everyone here. Most of the

436
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:20,920
Speaker 1: people knew what was going on, but anyone on any

437
00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:23,320
Speaker 1: other floor had no idea. And I'm pretty sure we

438
00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:27,960
Speaker 1: terrified half of an office building. Sorry about that, but

439
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:31,800
Speaker 1: it was Marshall Brain who did that, um so, not us,

440
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:35,560
Speaker 1: not us. But yeah, we've got some pretty cool footage

441
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:38,879
Speaker 1: from those videos. I mean, how could you not. We

442
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:40,640
Speaker 1: have some pretty cool footage from those videos that are

443
00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:42,359
Speaker 1: part of this article. So if you want to see

444
00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:44,640
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about in action, go to how stuff

445
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:47,760
Speaker 1: works dot com look up how helicopters work. And we

446
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:51,080
Speaker 1: have other articles about helicopters as well, including specific ones

447
00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:53,919
Speaker 1: like how the Apache helicopter works, which goes into more

448
00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:57,040
Speaker 1: detail about other systems besides the flight control system. It's

449
00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:00,640
Speaker 1: also got weapons systems and its role in military applications,

450
00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:03,320
Speaker 1: where of course just really focusing on the basics of

451
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:06,680
Speaker 1: helicopter flight. But let's also talk now, do you have

452
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:08,879
Speaker 1: anything else you want to talk about specifically about helicopters

453
00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:12,399
Speaker 1: before I move on to quadrocopters. Um, no, go ahead, okay,

454
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:16,080
Speaker 1: So quadricopters, Now, if you haven't seen one of these,

455
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:20,440
Speaker 1: these tend to be these little uh unmanned aerial vehicles

456
00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:23,440
Speaker 1: that have four rotor systems on them. Yeah, the ones

457
00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:28,160
Speaker 1: I've seen have been primarily for models for entertainment purposes. Yeah,

458
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:31,280
Speaker 1: our C controlled ones or sometimes that you can control

459
00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:34,720
Speaker 1: them through a smartphone. In our RC episode we talked

460
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:36,359
Speaker 1: a little bit about them. What are you when are

461
00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:38,040
Speaker 1: you grinning out? Someone's going to write in about RC

462
00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:42,280
Speaker 1: controlled I'm sorry, control can stop by over my a

463
00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:44,440
Speaker 1: t M machine with my PIN number, and I've got

464
00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:47,320
Speaker 1: an r C controlled helicopter. How about that? How about

465
00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:51,720
Speaker 1: them apples? Then? Anyway? Yes? I okay, so anyway, Yes,

466
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:54,240
Speaker 1: there's also ones that you can control with your smartphone.

467
00:26:54,280 --> 00:26:57,560
Speaker 1: The parrot a r drone which was at c S

468
00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:00,320
Speaker 1: the first time I think was maybe three or four

469
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:03,159
Speaker 1: years ago, and that was very impressive to see. That

470
00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:05,359
Speaker 1: was the first time I had ever seen a four

471
00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:10,960
Speaker 1: rotor h copter, a quadricopter. And uh, you might wonder, well,

472
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:13,040
Speaker 1: how do these things work. They don't have a tail rotor.

473
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,760
Speaker 1: There's no tail rotors, so how do they counteract that

474
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:21,840
Speaker 1: torque we were talking about. It's actually pretty clever. Two

475
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:25,360
Speaker 1: of the rotors on a quadricopter turn in one direction

476
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:28,200
Speaker 1: and the other turn to turn in the other direction,

477
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:32,080
Speaker 1: and they cancel each other out, yes, the opposite. They

478
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:37,240
Speaker 1: both produce enough torque so that you can keep the

479
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:41,440
Speaker 1: quadricopter from turning in place, either one way or the other.

480
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:43,639
Speaker 1: And when I say you, I don't really mean you,

481
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:48,960
Speaker 1: because most of these have pretty sophisticated microprocessors on board

482
00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:54,240
Speaker 1: that really register, measure the amount of torque and all

483
00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:57,280
Speaker 1: the other elements here so that they can make adjustments

484
00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:00,159
Speaker 1: to the speed of each of those rotors in or

485
00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:03,879
Speaker 1: to maintain the proper attitude and altitude of that device.

486
00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:07,040
Speaker 1: So all you have to do is say I want

487
00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:09,840
Speaker 1: you to go over there, and then all these other

488
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:13,800
Speaker 1: microprocessors do everything that they can to make that happen

489
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:17,760
Speaker 1: while keeping it nice and safe, which is pretty cool.

490
00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:19,280
Speaker 1: I mean you you know, you think about all the

491
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:20,840
Speaker 1: work that they have to do in order for that

492
00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:24,560
Speaker 1: to to turn out that way. Well, there are lots

493
00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:26,760
Speaker 1: of different kinds of quadricopters, and if you do want

494
00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:28,440
Speaker 1: to make it turn like if you want to make

495
00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:31,840
Speaker 1: it bank one way or the other. Again, what happens

496
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:35,760
Speaker 1: is it the quadricopter adjust the speed at which certain

497
00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:41,320
Speaker 1: rotors are spinning, so the lift changes exactly, Yes, the

498
00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:44,040
Speaker 1: lift changes and the torque changes, so the two together

499
00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:47,240
Speaker 1: can make you stray fit to the left or to

500
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:49,800
Speaker 1: the right, or forward or backwards. I've even seen, I mean,

501
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:52,640
Speaker 1: we've seen some that can do flips because what they'll

502
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:55,240
Speaker 1: do is they'll is one side will spin very very

503
00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:58,360
Speaker 1: quickly while the other side stops spinning. It'll lift up

504
00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:01,480
Speaker 1: into the air, and then they'll switch the directions of

505
00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:04,320
Speaker 1: the rotors so that it flips it in mid air

506
00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:08,160
Speaker 1: and lands back, you know, right side up with all

507
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:12,040
Speaker 1: rotors going, so it goes back into flying. And the

508
00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:13,880
Speaker 1: video that we were talking about at the very top

509
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:20,080
Speaker 1: of this podcast, it was a little unnerving really because

510
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:23,480
Speaker 1: we were seeing groups of these quadricopters that were all

511
00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:27,840
Speaker 1: following the same program, and you could have them grouped

512
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:33,520
Speaker 1: into individual little squadrons, like squadrons of four quadricopters, and

513
00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:35,960
Speaker 1: I think there was something like, uh, they were using

514
00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 1: twelve and all. So they had three groups of four

515
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:40,560
Speaker 1: and they would send the three groups of four through

516
00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:43,160
Speaker 1: and through an obstacle course and they would maneuver past

517
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:45,960
Speaker 1: each other, but they would all the four quadricopters would

518
00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:50,600
Speaker 1: move as a single unit, which was kind of creepy,

519
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:54,520
Speaker 1: you know, to see something move like several small things

520
00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:57,680
Speaker 1: all moving together as one like that was a little odd.

521
00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 1: And they can make a move through things like windows,

522
00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:04,000
Speaker 1: which was way griev er. Yeah, I got I got

523
00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:09,000
Speaker 1: these images of of drones coming into your house. Hello

524
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:12,600
Speaker 1: Mr Smith, Yeah, we have something we'd like to say

525
00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:17,920
Speaker 1: to you, Oh skynet. Yeah, no, it's a yeah, your

526
00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:22,040
Speaker 1: water bill. While we hover around the topic of helicopters,

527
00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:24,760
Speaker 1: it's time for us to take another break to thank

528
00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:35,520
Speaker 1: our sponsor. So the video we're talking about specifically, and

529
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:37,320
Speaker 1: I'll try and link to this when we do some

530
00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:41,840
Speaker 1: show notes, is called precise aggressive maneuvers for autonomous quad

531
00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:47,560
Speaker 1: quad rotors. Quadt I was gonna say quadrocopters but spelled

532
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:50,440
Speaker 1: quad rotors and it totally threw me off. But this

533
00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:54,080
Speaker 1: was done through the GRASP Lab g r a s

534
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:57,000
Speaker 1: P at the University of Pennsylvania. Yeah, that's a general

535
00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:01,720
Speaker 1: robotics Automation Sensing and Perception. Yeah, so this particular video

536
00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:07,240
Speaker 1: shows these uh, these tiny quadricopters moving through various maneuvers.

537
00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:09,520
Speaker 1: What's interesting here is that the one I'm looking at

538
00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:12,960
Speaker 1: right now, like it's this is one of those videos

539
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:15,520
Speaker 1: that just got really popular all of a sudden, right

540
00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:19,760
Speaker 1: like that. Several of our listeners are watching listeners, um

541
00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 1: are Yeah, but the video that I'm looking at right

542
00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:27,680
Speaker 1: now was uploaded so two years ago and we're just

543
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:30,000
Speaker 1: now starting to catch on it. Sometimes the Internet is

544
00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:31,880
Speaker 1: a little slow to catch on the memes, That's what

545
00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:34,080
Speaker 1: I'm saying. But yeah, this was something that started to

546
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:36,960
Speaker 1: make it make the rounds and uh and on Google

547
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:40,960
Speaker 1: Plus and on Facebook recently and Twitter as well, and uh,

548
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:43,480
Speaker 1: just one of those cool things that it turns out

549
00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:45,239
Speaker 1: it's been in the works for a few years, but

550
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:48,200
Speaker 1: we just started to get the attention of the world

551
00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:52,800
Speaker 1: in general. But it shows a really interesting approach to

552
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:57,600
Speaker 1: programming these quadricopters and showing their capabilities and what they

553
00:31:57,640 --> 00:31:59,320
Speaker 1: might be used for. And you might think, okay, well,

554
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:02,840
Speaker 1: you know, you put a camera on these and then

555
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:05,480
Speaker 1: suddenly you've got a spy plane. But you could also

556
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:08,560
Speaker 1: have it for something like first responders. So there's a

557
00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 1: let's say there's an accident and you send some of

558
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:14,320
Speaker 1: these in uh that to in order to to scan

559
00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:17,280
Speaker 1: the scene and make sure that one it's safe enough

560
00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:20,720
Speaker 1: to send in an emergency response teams, and to whether

561
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:23,640
Speaker 1: or not it's even necessary to start send an emergency

562
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 1: response teams. You may send in. Let's say there's a

563
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:28,640
Speaker 1: building that's that's on fire, and you send some of

564
00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:31,600
Speaker 1: these over to look because I mean, these things, relatively

565
00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:34,680
Speaker 1: to a human life, are cheap. They're nothing. So you

566
00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:36,320
Speaker 1: can make as many of these as you like. They're

567
00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:38,360
Speaker 1: gonna be. They might be a little expensive, but it's

568
00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:41,240
Speaker 1: less expensive than losing a human life. So you send

569
00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:43,520
Speaker 1: these things in and take a look around. It may

570
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:45,040
Speaker 1: turn out that, well, you know what, that building was

571
00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:47,080
Speaker 1: completely abandoned. There was no one in there, So we

572
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:49,920
Speaker 1: don't need to risk the lives of any emergency responders.

573
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,560
Speaker 1: We can just use the firefighters to try and put

574
00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:55,840
Speaker 1: this fire out. So that's the kind of idea that

575
00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:59,120
Speaker 1: we'd be looking at from that point forward. And there's

576
00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:02,560
Speaker 1: a lot of other possibilities, Um besides that. I mean

577
00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:06,160
Speaker 1: that's traffic, you know, having them look at traffic, things

578
00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:09,600
Speaker 1: like that. That's these are all possibilities. No, granted, you

579
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:11,800
Speaker 1: have to figure out how to supply the power to

580
00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:14,560
Speaker 1: these things. Most of them are battery operated, and the

581
00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:17,000
Speaker 1: battery will only last so long. So it's not like

582
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:19,520
Speaker 1: you would send out, you know, wake up, punch the clock,

583
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:24,160
Speaker 1: send out fifty quadricopters to cover the city and then

584
00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:26,560
Speaker 1: at the end of the day they all come back. Uh,

585
00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:28,560
Speaker 1: So you know, it's not like it's a it's a

586
00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:32,120
Speaker 1: it's not like you can solve all the problems just

587
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:35,920
Speaker 1: by sitting out quatricopters. But it's a cool idea and

588
00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:40,560
Speaker 1: the videos are pretty awesome. Also, the the the parrot videos,

589
00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:44,960
Speaker 1: those are really cool too because those have incorporated smartphone

590
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:48,680
Speaker 1: applications and you can see through the camera. You can see. Yes,

591
00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:50,400
Speaker 1: you can use it as you can use as a

592
00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:55,360
Speaker 1: surveillance tool. Although it is it's whisperer quiet. I've used

593
00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:57,320
Speaker 1: that I've used that phrase like eight times on tech

594
00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:00,360
Speaker 1: stuff recently. But yeah, it's it's not like it's subtle.

595
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:03,480
Speaker 1: It's you'll hear a when you're playing with one of

596
00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:06,000
Speaker 1: these things, but you can use it to look through

597
00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:10,680
Speaker 1: the camera. And they've even incorporated games into the drones

598
00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:13,640
Speaker 1: so that you can if you have one and your

599
00:34:13,640 --> 00:34:15,800
Speaker 1: friend has one, you're both controlling them with your smartphones.

600
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:18,480
Speaker 1: You can play a game where you're essentially kind of

601
00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:22,080
Speaker 1: like laser tag but with drones. How awesome is that?

602
00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:25,320
Speaker 1: And then they also have other games where, uh, they'll

603
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:28,480
Speaker 1: have targets show up on your screen. They're not they

604
00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:31,960
Speaker 1: don't actually exist in real life. It's an augmented reality

605
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:34,560
Speaker 1: program where the targets appear on your screen and your

606
00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:37,040
Speaker 1: job is to fly your drone so that you can

607
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:40,240
Speaker 1: use a little imaginary laser to shoot down these targets.

608
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:43,560
Speaker 1: It's neat stuff like that, and it really, I mean,

609
00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:48,480
Speaker 1: beyond the fact that a quadricopter is pretty darn cool

610
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:50,879
Speaker 1: by itself. Yeah yeah, yeah. As a matter of fact,

611
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:55,040
Speaker 1: that one in particular also has some bumpers that it's

612
00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:58,279
Speaker 1: sort of be a shield for the for the rotors. Yes, yes,

613
00:34:58,440 --> 00:34:59,920
Speaker 1: so that you can fly it indoors. A lot of

614
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:04,320
Speaker 1: uh model helicopters I've seen are are more traditional and

615
00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:07,280
Speaker 1: do not have that kind of protection for the rotors.

616
00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:09,480
Speaker 1: So you you wouldn't want to necessarily fly it around

617
00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:11,680
Speaker 1: your house even you want to bang into a lamp

618
00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:13,840
Speaker 1: or something. Yeah, even I've seen some of the small

619
00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:17,000
Speaker 1: ones that are pumped sort of palm sized. Um. But yeah,

620
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:19,600
Speaker 1: I mean if if it actually touches something, it could

621
00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:23,320
Speaker 1: uh damage it or the copter or both, and that

622
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:26,520
Speaker 1: that would be you could bang into someone serious. So

623
00:35:26,560 --> 00:35:29,640
Speaker 1: but yeah, the a r drone when the little bumpers

624
00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:31,799
Speaker 1: you're talking about, they look like little disks that fit

625
00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:36,240
Speaker 1: around like hollow disks. So yeah, they fit right around

626
00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:38,160
Speaker 1: where the rotors are. And so it kind of makes

627
00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:41,840
Speaker 1: us a safer device, so that if it were to

628
00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:43,760
Speaker 1: bump into something, you would just get bumped, you wouldn't

629
00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:46,400
Speaker 1: get cut. Yeah. Still you wouldn't want to get it

630
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:51,160
Speaker 1: around people or or pets certainly. Um. So yeah, but

631
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:53,040
Speaker 1: it makes it a little safer. Yeah, it's kind of neat.

632
00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:57,759
Speaker 1: And then uh, I've also heard from enthusiasts people who

633
00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:03,000
Speaker 1: really enjoy flying r C helicopters and r C quadricopters

634
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:05,600
Speaker 1: that if you're interested in this, a quadricopter in general

635
00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:09,399
Speaker 1: tends to be a lot easier to fly because those

636
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:11,880
Speaker 1: microprocessors I was talking about do a lot of the

637
00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:15,200
Speaker 1: fine tuning for you. So all you do is you

638
00:36:15,239 --> 00:36:17,120
Speaker 1: tell it I want you to go up, and it

639
00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:19,879
Speaker 1: takes care of the controls that needs to to make

640
00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:22,000
Speaker 1: those different rotors spin at the right speeds and makes

641
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:24,400
Speaker 1: it go up or turn left or turn right or

642
00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:28,239
Speaker 1: straight or whatever. So it's it can be a lot

643
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:30,600
Speaker 1: of fun and it can get people into the hobby

644
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:34,720
Speaker 1: and it's not incredibly challenging. On the other hand, flying

645
00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:38,799
Speaker 1: a remote control helicopter requires a lot of finesse. Not

646
00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:41,359
Speaker 1: quite the same sort of thing you would need if

647
00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:44,239
Speaker 1: you were flying a life size helicopter, but still it

648
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:47,320
Speaker 1: does require that you control things like the tail rotor

649
00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:50,680
Speaker 1: and that you're very methodical with the way that you

650
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:56,719
Speaker 1: try and turn the helicopter, maneuver it, take off and landings.

651
00:36:57,040 --> 00:36:59,000
Speaker 1: It's it's actually, from why I understand one of the

652
00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:04,560
Speaker 1: more challenge ng RC vehicles to control, because there's just

653
00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:06,680
Speaker 1: so much you have to keep in mind. However, that

654
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:09,359
Speaker 1: being said, even though it's really challenging, I also hear

655
00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:12,520
Speaker 1: it's one of the most enjoyable experiences, very rewarding because

656
00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:14,719
Speaker 1: once you master that, you know, you really have a

657
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:18,200
Speaker 1: sense of accomplishment. So if you are interested in that

658
00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:20,719
Speaker 1: kind of hobby, I recommend you go ahead and you know,

659
00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:23,160
Speaker 1: check it out. See what, see what it would look.

660
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:25,000
Speaker 1: How much it would cost to get into it, because

661
00:37:25,040 --> 00:37:29,640
Speaker 1: these these devices can be fairly expensive. Sometimes sometimes the

662
00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:32,560
Speaker 1: few hundred dollars is on the low end of some

663
00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:35,839
Speaker 1: of these devices. But it is something that if you're

664
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:38,839
Speaker 1: interested in learning more about flight, if you're interested in

665
00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:41,840
Speaker 1: just kind of getting a new skill, it's kind of

666
00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:44,560
Speaker 1: a cool thing to get into. And uh, you know,

667
00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:47,280
Speaker 1: you know what, I've never actually written in a helicopter,

668
00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:51,279
Speaker 1: have you No, that's one of my goals I really

669
00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:52,839
Speaker 1: want to do. I want to do a hellic just

670
00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:57,400
Speaker 1: a simple helicopter tour. Nothing, nothing terribly you know, exciting.

671
00:37:57,560 --> 00:38:00,200
Speaker 1: I was thinking about actually doing one in Hawaii e

672
00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:03,600
Speaker 1: because I thought, well, heck, that would be amazing, you know,

673
00:38:03,680 --> 00:38:08,280
Speaker 1: the landscape and everything. But I happened to be married

674
00:38:08,320 --> 00:38:12,120
Speaker 1: to someone who finds air travel to be the uh

675
00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:15,719
Speaker 1: not the most relaxing experience, and so I didn't do that.

676
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:19,040
Speaker 1: I did go parasailing though. Interesting. Yeah, totally not at

677
00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:22,399
Speaker 1: all like flying in a helicopter, I would imagine. Yeah,

678
00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:24,279
Speaker 1: I don't even know why I brought it up. All right,

679
00:38:24,360 --> 00:38:27,360
Speaker 1: So let's let's wrap this up. Guys. This was fun.

680
00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:30,239
Speaker 1: I'm glad we did this because, you know, we like

681
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:32,480
Speaker 1: to try and tackle lots of different kinds of topics

682
00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:34,920
Speaker 1: here at tech Stuff. We like to talk about the

683
00:38:34,920 --> 00:38:38,520
Speaker 1: things that are a big social phenomena, you know, things

684
00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:42,480
Speaker 1: like like social networking sites and how technology affects us

685
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:45,600
Speaker 1: personally or as a society. And we like to talk

686
00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:48,120
Speaker 1: about companies, and we like to talk about innovators. But

687
00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:50,200
Speaker 1: once in a while it's fun to take a specific

688
00:38:50,239 --> 00:38:53,440
Speaker 1: type of technology and really deconstructed and talk about the

689
00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:56,520
Speaker 1: various parts and what makes it go tick or fly

690
00:38:56,880 --> 00:39:00,600
Speaker 1: in this case. I hope you guys enjoyed that class episode.

691
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:03,080
Speaker 1: If you have suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff,

692
00:39:03,120 --> 00:39:05,719
Speaker 1: whether it's a technology, a company, maybe there's someone you

693
00:39:05,719 --> 00:39:08,480
Speaker 1: would like me to interview, why not right in? The

694
00:39:08,600 --> 00:39:10,839
Speaker 1: email address for the show is tech Stuff at how

695
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:13,480
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com, or you can visit our website

696
00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:16,799
Speaker 1: over at tech stuff podcast dot com that has other

697
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:19,239
Speaker 1: ways to contact the show, as well as a link

698
00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:21,880
Speaker 1: to our merchandise store, which is over at t public

699
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:24,839
Speaker 1: dot com slash tech stuff. That's where you're gonna find

700
00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:28,120
Speaker 1: all sorts of goodies that you can purchase, and every

701
00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:30,960
Speaker 1: single purchase goes to help the show. We greatly appreciate it,

702
00:39:31,320 --> 00:39:39,600
Speaker 1: and I will talk to you again really soon for

703
00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:42,080
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics because at

704
00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:52,960
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com