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Post by Apollo Gnomon on Jul 6, 2006 20:43:13 GMT -4
A helicopter has a powered rotor. Forward motion is an effect of the main rotor. A gyrocopter has an unpowered rotor. Rotation happens because of the forward motion, forward motion is provided by, usually, a push-prop.
In both cases the rotating blades are providing lift. One of the "safety features" of a gyro is that in the event of engine failure the vehicle slowly loses forward motion. Then the rotors are spun by the falling craft, so the descent speed is slowed.
Personal flying machines have a lot of drawbacks including stupid people with money buying them.
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Post by Apollo Gnomon on Jun 29, 2006 18:33:37 GMT -4
Oh, and I'm voting for them to have the right to test anything they want. Are they not a sovereign nation? Do they give a rat's nipples what US and the USSR agreed to thirty years ago? I'm also for the US testing the defense system. We may be all a-twitter about angry young men with carbombs and backpacks these days, but there are still nations with nuclear weapons and missiles. I mean, really, can we truely trust the French?
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Post by Apollo Gnomon on Jun 29, 2006 18:28:15 GMT -4
There was a lot of press coverage reporting that, based on the impending NK missile test, the US missile defense system had been "switched on"...I found that strangely amusing, as we don't have one...does the press feed on some of the rampant ignorance out there? www.mda.mil/mdalink/html/mdalink.htmlNo, we really have missile defense. It may or may not work, but that's just a long-term engineering problem. The geopolitical problem of having or not having missile defense has been deemed irrelevent. Public Law 106-38, quoted on above link, was enacted by the 106th Congress (1999) and signed by Clinton. But yes, the media feed on rampant ignorance, and feed it as well so it can grow big and strong.
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Post by Apollo Gnomon on Mar 7, 2006 12:54:05 GMT -4
Jimmy Carter tried to make me learn metric in grade school, but then Ronald Reagan said I didn't have to. NASA is trying to decide whether to use all-metric, all-inch or mixed measurements. www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2001/010303-metric.htmAs far as I know the US and Liberia are the only all-non-metric nations left.
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