Special thanks to Nick Aukland and the crew at Helicopter Maintenance Help Desk ( www.youtube.com/@helicoptermaintenance ). Nick was super responsive and enlisted his team to help me get the details right!
How is lift transferred from the rotors to the airframe? If the rotors have lift, what stops them just being lifted up out of the aricraft? That fixing point must transfer lift. But how and where? Ive been wanting to know this for years!!!
Caught an error in the video. When discussing disymetry of lift you said maximum down flapping occurs at the front and up flapping at the rear. This is actually the opposite of the truth. As the blade on the advancing side moves forward it generates more lift and flaps up so the blade is at maximum up flap at the front. This compensates for disymetry of lift because as it flaps up that reduces its angle of attack to the relative wind. Thus less upward force is transfered to the rotor hub. The opposite is true on the retreating side. As it flaps down the downward motion of the blade causes an increase in the angle of attack to the relative wind thus creating more lift.
As detailed as this was I would've liked to see more explanation of translation tendency rather than it being mentioned as well as perhaps showing high forward velocity induced lift. Full collective and forward cyclic will grant high forward acceleration but at a certain point it becomes draggy, can bog the rotor rpm, and the heli will fly significantly faster while level and less collective as at speed the rotor plane becomes more like a solid wing so less collective is needed with high rotor rpm. It may sound like advanced to some but it's really rather important for most basic helicopter flight. Also it is possible to fly with no tail rotor authority while maintaining high forward velocity, low collective use, and if necessary synched cyclic commands to go general directions. It can even be done without tail boom but of course is much more difficult. The tailboom really helps stabilize yaw at high forward speed regardless of the tail rotor. A lot of people just give up but that's how you can save a heli with inoperable tail.
Amazing work. Probably the most detailed (mind blowing!) animations yet. I'm not ready to pilot a copter, but know a helluva lot more about their workings!👏💯👍
As someone in my first year of flying helicopters, I can say this video explains the mechanics and interactions better than 90% of my instructors. Especially rotor flapping, feathering, flight control mixing, dissymmetry of lift, and the sprag clutch. Thank you for this, it should be shown to every aspiring helicopter pilot!
It's the same with watching David Malan at Harvard, talk about how a computer works. If you've ever had the subject in high school, it's like the difference of seeing something for the first time, vs. having had it told to you by a blind man.
If he did then I didn't stick around long enough to see it as I stopped watching when he said that jet (turbojet) engines use exhaust gases to create thrust.
@@Tom-zs6bb 5:03 "The turbo shaft engine gets its name because it's designed to power a mechanical shaft instead of producing thrust with a stream of jet exhaust." 8:21 "The exhaust gas flow turns ninety degrees as it enters the exhaust chamber, having spent its energy." Not sure what you are talking about.
@@soulextracter What I was talking about should be quite obvious. Perhaps you should re-watch the video. Or do you also believe that a turbojet engine creates thrust by ejecting the exhaust gases rearward?
Means you are secretive and selfish Engineer are you not tapping from him? bought you don't want to share your knowledge experience, where those knowledge and skills kept from you? Today you are comfortable and proud to bear that tittle"Engineer"😁😄😀🤪🤣
I feel like 50% of the appeal of these videos is the information, and the other 50% is just drooling over how high quality and clear the videos are. I'm fully confident that there is no better package of information out there. This guy deserves millions. As soon as I'm not a broke college student, I'll be joining patreon
i like this channel better than others. his attention to detail is sooooo much better than "aitelly" and others. i enjoy 'aitelly" but animagraffs will always be my go to.
Not trying to take away from the man's work because it is awesome but making better content than the history channel isn't that hard. It irritates the hell out of me that history and nat geo have become a mockery of what they were and supposed to be.
As a chinook mechanic, this is spot on and you should be dang proud of yourself. 100% correct and very smooth. You took a month long class and condensed it to an hour. Bravo. Edit: I would love to see more rotary wing videos; fenestron breakdown, co-axial birds and of course, tandem rotor systems.
If you could do me a favor, please send Jake a Chinook maintenance manual or whatever drawings you have in the mail. I won't be mad if he decides to do a v-22 or something instead, but I think we can agree the Chinook is absolutely timeless and deserves the video
@@mgmchenry amen to doing the Chinook. And despite a few growing pains (and casualties, sadly) the Osprey is a marvel of flight mechanics and I wouldn’t be upset about a V-22 video either. From a civilian on a marine base who watches them often 😊
@@krash2fast99 I feel like the Chinook is like a semi truck - big, expensive, reliable, and effective. Osprey is like modern cargo van with a decent payload capacity, powered loading ramp, sliding driving door, gets into places you can't take the semi, sleek and versatile. But we'll always need the Semi. The big jobs don't go away.
@@krash2fast99 I don't accept V-22 hate. Compared to other airframes, the lifetime safety record is solid. They'll get the clutch sorted and she'll be back in business. That said said, in the right hands, a chinook is a beast and still nimble as a ballerina. Witnessing a proper j-turn will change your life. Either would make a fantastic video. Tilt rotor is an interesting mechanism to look at, but it takes someone of Jake's level to illustrate how the physics behind CH-47 ground resonance can rapidly disassemble a chinook.
Hey Jake, I know I'm just one dude, but I got more stoked seeing you'd posted a new video than I have for any creator in a while. These animations and narrations are amazing, keep crushing it!
Wow, from a 31 Year EMS Helicopter pilot that currently flies a Bell 407 GXI . Excellent Job. I am sending this video to all my friends that are always asking me questions on the function of the helicopters I fly. If I would have had this 20 years ago when I was also actively a Helicopter flight instructor, it would have made my job so much easier. I wouldn't have wasted so many dry erase markers and exposed my lack of drawing skills. Bravo Jacob.
Chinook pilot here; This video should be shown in flight school. Amazingly well explained and animated, and much more palatable than a 97 year old grumpy retired Huey pilot presenting a 20yr old Powerpoint slide deck... lol
Damn man, that sux big time. I asked my boss if I could run some of the classes in the workshop, get real eyes on real machines. Would have been great to have this tut' also. Know your tools, execute your job with excellence.
Every time I see the notification, I get a little excited and plan when I can watch it uninterrupted. Make a nice meal, sit down, and just... Enjoy. One hour of serenity.
I had a few interruptions, honestly it took me 3 days to watch this. Even during my peaceful times I had to rewind it a hundred times to understand it.
As a professional helicopter pilot for 23 years and counting (and currently flying a 407) this is done really well. Many details are left off but the bulk of this information is not only correct but nicely done. Thanks
This is exquisite, perfectly explaining a helicopter’s inner workings, and not just visually, but verbally as well. This is not an easy thing to communicate, but this video does it masterfully. Well done. I’m sure this took considerable effort.
Research, Narration, 3D modeling and Animation by just 1 person! An amazing video by any standard! Can't thank you enough Mr. Jacob O'Neil, for creating such a detailed, coherent and fun to watch content. 👌🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I am helicopter mechanic 25 years ago, i have worked with a lot of models (at present with Airbus H-135) and i have to say this is the best teaching video i have ever seen, you should use it at helicopter mechanic schools to train students, congratulation for this great video and thanks for sharing, best regards!
Your efforts have created the best, easiest to follow description of rotor blade dynamics and control I've ever come across, much better than the FAA handbook used in ground school.
as a commercial and instrument rated helicopter pilot, I have never found a more clear and precise explantation of gas producer and power turbines. Such incredible job for such a confusing topic for most pilots.
Yeah I was thinking the same thing as I watched. I'm a fixed-wing pilot who always was curious about that aspect. Only flew as a passenger a few times, but it would be incredible if I could learn to fly rotary one day! In the meantime, I'm having a blast in DCS with the Kiowa in VR 😂
Thank you very much for teaching those of us who haven’t been to flight school how these machines work. This video deserves the opening of a new academy awards category. The amount of work you have put in researching, modeling and animating all this must be insane. Thank you also for paying hommage to the pure genius that went into developing such a complex mechanism. Cheers!
Nice. I finished my A&P college classes and received my diploma From OCC in Orange county Ca. 3.5 years of night school including summers. We had 2 UH-1 Huey's (the type used in Vietnam) we used to teach us all about Helicopters. This video was outstanding
This video is an utterly astounding accomplishment. It makes me realize that YT needs a robust set of annual video awards to recognize towering achievements such as this.
I can't even imagine how long it took to figure this out and how many different experiments and iterations were necessary. Definitely an engineering marvel.
This is absolutely amazing! Helicopters never made any mechanical sense to me, always found them scary, this video gave me a new appreciative perspective.
@@skorpius2029 I cannot believe helicopters don't just fall apart, with 100,000 points of failure, 90,000 spinny parts, being held together with 50,000 bolts & also that one nut at the top of the mast clamping it all down. That one nut makes me worried. Also I believe in god now.
Hands down the best I've seen in explaining swashplate-rotor assembly. Never been able to comprehend fully from other sources. Thank you thank you thank you!
I can’t imagine how many hours of work it takes to animate, edit, and narrate these videos. Which can’t happen until in-depth research is done on the current machine being animated, and all of the technical details understood. Genuinely impressive work. Also impressive, is that every extremely specialized mechanical nut, bearing, bushing, coupling, etc. on machines like this are tested so extensively that, with scheduled maintenance, have a failure-rate of practically and virtually close to never. The main takeaway I see from the design of this machine is that everything can elegantly flex and absorb forces so as to create an entire system that is actually very durable to the exceptional and complex forces they must operate in unison within as one smoothly functioning, truly exceptional example of engineering on so many levels.
Animagraffs the amount of time and research you put into these 3D visuals is mind boggling, the results are truly informative and fascinating. Thank you.
I’m a professional helicopter mechanic working on Bell 407s (the exact model used for the video) full time and you are spot on at every point. Incredibly well done.
I am continually amazed at how in a month's time you can put out an hour long video like this. As an aerospace engineer, I might spend a year working on one small component (albeit at a deeper level), whereas you can dive into the workings of the whole vehicle in a tenth that time!
At 48 years old, I thought I understood the basics of how a helicopter works. Then I taught myself to fly one in DCS. I was wrong. Everything I thought I knew, both theory and practical was wrong. It was amazing. Thanks for the mesmerizing video. I learned many new things about the mechanics of rotor craft.
This is a masterclass explanation. I have been trying to wrap my head around swash plates for a few years and never got the right animation. Thanks for you content.
If you think auto-rotation is cool, check out autogyros. They look like helicopters with propellers. The main rotor is unpowered, and relies on auto-rotation using the forward propulsion of the propeller.
Outstanding video. As a a mechanical engineer and fixed wing pilot, I still can't believe helicopters are as dependable as they are given the complexity of the design and number of components.
@@RabidLemurs I was in the Royal Canadian Air Force for 9 years as an Aero Engine Tech, a jet engine mechanic, and it didn't matter how much Loctite or safety wire you used, part loosen ed up, your job was to find them before they fell off.
helicopter technician here, great video and thorough explenation! if i was a teacher at a flight mechanics school this would be in the first or second class lesson.
I'm amazed that someone actually invented this, and now they are used commonly all over the world. One single failure in any single blade or gear, and the entire thing tears itself apart. At least airplanes can glide, but this is just so insanely complex I'm surprised it works at all.
The maintenance to keep them safe and reliable also makes them very expensive. Every moving part has a very conservative inspection or replacement hour life.
Wow, this video is amazing. The detailed breakdown of the helicopter's mechanism is incredibly thorough and well-explained. I finally understand how everything works, from the main rotor dynamics to the tail rotor function and the intricacies of cyclic and collective pitch control. Your clear explanations and animation made complex concepts easy to grasp. Thank you for such an informative and engaging animation.
nice! Ok halfway through. I knew about collective and cyclic pitch but never saw a good animation. As a machinist and mechanical engineering student, I can safely say I don't know if I will ever ride in a helicopter hahaha. So many points of failure. They are amazing pieces of mechanical engineering/manufacturing feats. After watching the whole thing I have to say bravo! Well done man. Helicopters are crazy.
A note on phase lag that's actually incrediablly fascinating (in fact it's the most fascinating thing about helicopters in my opinion): You were completely correct, it's not *really* gyroscopic precession since it's not a rigid disk. It's a system of a blade flapping up and down on its hinge. In fact, you can model the dynamic moments on the blade as it flaps. When you do this, you'll find that the rotor blade's rotational inertia ends up acting as a spring that wants to pull the blade back down when it flaps up (or vice-versa). When you write out the dynamics this effective mass-spring system, you find that its natural frequency is equal to that of the rotor's rotational rate! Coincidentally, a cylcic input creates a moment on the rotor blade at a frequency equal to the rotor's rotational rate. Making an input at a systems natural frequency creates a RESONANCE. A characteristic of resonances in ALL second order dynamic systems is a 90 DEGREE PHASE LAG!!!. Of course, the blade hinge could have some stiffness and damping, so the blade flapping natural frequency may not be exactly equal the rotor rotational rate, hence the range of phase lags less than 90 degrees you may see in some helicopters. You may also be wondering: "isn't it bad for a resonance to be happening", and in fact it's quite the opposite. Helicopter rotor blades have so much inertia that simply perturbing the lift around the period won't cause them to budge all that much. However, a resonance causes the blade flapping amplitude to be high enough to significantly change the tip path plane. THE ONLY REASON WE CAN CONTROL THESE VEHICLES IS BECAUSE OF THE RESONANCE THAT'S CREATING THIS 90 DEGREE PHASE LAG!!!
Me: *starts playing this video to have something to listen to in the back ground while working on a knitting project* Also me: *ends up staring at this video the entire time and doesn't make any progress on my project while still holding it in my hand* Always love his videos. They're hard to look away from
Retired A&P here. Amazing video, detailing an incredible machine. Never got to do any MX on helicopters, other than a littlen pin-striping and some inspection duty on an Amerijet Bell Jet Ranger, back in 1988 at Fort Lauderdale Airport. But a flight mechanic I spoke with there said his bird required 10 hours MX for each hour of flight, because otherwise it would shake itself to pieces. 😆 I think he might have been exaggerating a bit. Thanks for this spectacular work you've done. I much enjoyed the education.
@@PetesGuide they are not dangerous, they have a higher than normal crash rate due to the pilots flying them generally having lower hours, and the fact that they are frequently used as training helicopters. Lots of helicopters use the same semi-rigid rotor system that Robinsons do and have less crashes simply because the pilots are often more experienced, for example a Bell 206 A/B/L etc. AND the fact that Robinsons are such a popular helicopter (there are thousands out there) means that yes, there will be more Robinson crashes that you hear of simply because there are MORE of them. A common mistake that Low hour pilots make, consequently they are typically flying Robinson Helicopters, is unloading the main rotor system which can cause mast bump or tail boom strikes. These are both likely to end up in a crash. Obviously there are other incidents and accidents that do occur but if you look into them, majority are due to pilots flying outside the capabilities of the aircraft due to a lack of experience.
@@PetesGuide Bit more to it than that, Robinsons have semi rigid rotor systems and are susceptible to mast bump in hilly terrain as well as Tomtom's explanation due to turbulence around hills. We have quite a few fatal crashes in the here in New Zealand in the South Island due to cresting a peak and entering a low G condition on the other side resulting in the rotor unloading causing mast bump and the loss of the main rotor. (The main mast and rotor assembly literally snaps off)...
My mind is blown. I knew in principle how a helicopter's rotor system works, but this explanation has made me realize just how complex and ingenious it is. Amazing video, and a ton of work, I bet. Thank you!!
As a Mechanical Engineer by trade in industry, this video is outstanding. Full of in-depth learnings that usually only come with 'experience' and 'on the job learning' in industry. Undoubtedly these videos take hours upon hours to produce, and for little reconciliation considering the harshness of RU-vid's algorithm and payment system. However, please do keep on producing this content as it is invaluable for the next generation of engineers that would otherwise have no way to 'fast-track' and learn their craft.
Im not sure if it has been stated yet but as a privet pilot i can yell you the first thing you do to enter an auto rotation change from a "nose down" position / "nose level" to a nose up position. Your trying to get wind passing through the rotors to force them to spin. You also change the blade pitch to a much flatter angle in an auto rotation to maintain maximum blade RPM (with out going past an overspeed) as the RPM and Inertia in the system is what is used to cushion your landing when you flare at the bottom.
I can't tell what's more impressive...how these things fly...or the time, skill, effort and energy it took to recreate this in blender for us to watch. insane work and channel dude please keep this up. you're doing amazing things
Wow, I never knew how intricate, and just how many incredible moving parts there were to a helicopter? Amazing. I also know the more moving parts you have the more problems you can have but these things are amazingly designed!!
This is perhaps your best video to date. I've loved watching your presentations over the last couple of years. And, I've learned so much. The complexity of the helicopter was so well explained, along with the finer details of all of your videos. And you are a wiz with your animations. They are beautiful to watch. Thank you.
Jacob this is just impressive. Hands down the best engineering explanation and detail I have ever encountered about such a conplex thing aa an helicopter.
I run a company here in Aus called Mayday Helicopters. We’re a Ground School that tutors students who are going through their PPL-H and CPL-H pass their exams. This is by far the best video I’ve ever seen and probably the best I ever will see explaining the mechanics and aerodynamics of helicopter flight. My god 👏🏽
I wish i had this video during pilot training: seriously, seeing it in such detail and action makes it way easier to understand than the text books we are handed out!
You showed clearly the reasons for the limited payload, speed & range why vertical flight is not for big scale airliner use, the higher risks of mech. issues, higher reliability risks in bad weather, more maintenance and less speed. Thank you very much for another loaded information hour on a complex subject...sprag clutch, kaflex drive, epicyclic gearing in rel. to power, blade cyclic/collective pitch/coning/flapping & coreolis/dissymetry lift forces, etc. Gyroscopic precession & phase lag was well understandable than just by reading about it...including swashplate (cyclic and collective)!
Not only does it take a crazy amount of time to create these videos, but the amount of research it takes just to know what all pieces of these machines do has to be off the charts. Tremendous effort for these videos for us to enjoy. Thank you.
Another great video! All these AI same type knockoff channels cant come near matching the quality and accuracy of Animagraffs (and Jared Owen 🙂)! The animation made it perfectly clear how the different systems work. This must have taken forever, obviously a lot of work went into this! Thanks!
As an Army helicopter pilot I have to say very well done! I can't imagine the amount of research and work that you put into this nearly hour long video but it definitely shows. This video should be a part of the ciriculum for new helicopter pilot's as you do such a fantastic job at explaining and visualizing everything in such an easy to understand format. Exceptional job!
Wow. The engineering involved in helicopter design is mind blowing. I’ve been a part of fixed wing aviation for over 28 years and never knew the level of detail involved in a rotary wing aircraft. Between the design of a helicopter and the ability to explain it all with these 3 dimensional color video almost has me speechless.
When I was a kid in the 60's, I had the book "The Way Things Work", which is apparently still in print. Your amazing animations take things to the next level. Thank you for your dedication and all the research that must go into making these animations. Isn't it amazing what can be done with computer graphics?
I can't imagine what value this video will bring to helicopter training and instruction. You are serving humanity a great service and we should all be grateful for you creating these masterpieces at no charge.
This is beyond incredible. There are some intelligent people in the world, capable of building these things. Truly marvelous. Thank you for this outstanding effort to make us all understand a little bit more about the wonders or engineering behind these inventions.
I wish I had access to all these free lessons on RU-vid when I was younger. It could have changed my future and prevented me from ending up as a lorry driver. I hope more young people watch this and get inspired to pursue their dreams!
Jacob,really love your educational videos,most especially this video and the ones on the turbo charger vs super charger and the jet airliner, what you do,is awesome and inspiring and really love the music in the background l, bravo, keep them coming 😊
When I used to work in the fire department, a LifeFlight medic came to our station to give us a lesson on the helicopter they used, so we would be better equipped if we found ourselves helping load a patient onboard. He said the main rotor is so finely tuned and calibrated, that a postage stamp stuck on the end of one blade would throw everything out of balance and cause a catastrophic failure.
