Hey ... Hello ... once again; You were the one who mentioned the Mangusta, not me and besides that I don't think it's a typical this or that country and therefore recognition item for a countries ability if a rotor turns this or that way !
That doesn means a country can't build a helicopters rotor head the other way !? ...
I agree with You it's a very strong indication of a possible French design but esp. regarding Your suggested EC-725 this types "new" rotor head was developed for a much heavier type and as far as I know much later than the first Z-10s.
Deino
First, I'm a 1700 hour helicopter pilot qualified in the SH-3, CH-46 and it's civilian cousin the BV-107II as well as the BV-234
Civil Chinook. We trained on two versions of the Bell Jetranger and I'v paid for some Hughes 300 time out of my own pocket. I know helicopters. I also have a little Lynx and Kamov KA-23 time in my log book, the latter was a special treat indeed as I greatly admire Kamov's product. I had an opportunity to fly the Mi-26 too but had to turn it down as it conflicted with my work schedule that day, that was a real bummer, and then my employer sent me to another job site a couple of days later. Double bummer, eh.
All US, British, German, Italian, Japanese single rotor helicopters have rotor systems that, when viewed from above, rotate counter clockwise. All single rotor Russian helicopter rotor systems rotate clockwise. We used to joke that the Russians chose clockwise simply to be the opposite of the Americans ( check out Russian physics sometime, they have a 'left handed rule" for calculating torque analogous to the normal western "right handed rule" ). Of the French helicopters ( pre-Eurocopter ) all but the Super Frelon have rotor systems that rotate clockwise. The Frelon and Super Frelon were designed using Sikorsky dynamics, hence that airframes use of an American style counterclockwise rotor system. All other French helo's hav eclockwise heads, that is a national characteristic of French helos. There are some differences flying these since the helo will tend to yaw right with power application on a counterclockwise head and yaw left with a clockwise head, and as a pilot you have to anticipate this with a small application of rudder pedal as you pull power. Since most of my time is in tandem rotor Boeing-Vertols ( about 1250 of my total hours ) and the rotors on these counteract each other's yaw moment, my feet have become very lazy and I'v long forgotten how to counteract a tail rotor. With tandem rotors there is no need! You almost never need to apply rudder in flight. A tail rotor is just this thing that robs you of engine power while providing no lift or forward thrust and it inconveniently manages to chop things up and injure people with alarming frequency. Tandem rotors and co-axial rotors rule!:nana:
