Word: rotors
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...Willow Grove, Pa. last week, horses shied, humans stared, as the world's first "readable'' autogiro was successfully demonstrated. With its propeller still and its three 16-ft. rotor-blades folded back like a closed fan, it chugged along the streets of this placid Philadelphia suburb at 25 m.p.h. until the driver decided to take to the air. Stepping out, he easily swung the rotor-blades into place, fixed them there with three pins. Instant later, the little machine rose into the air, buzzed off over the trees at 100 m.p.h...
Developed by Autogiro Co. of America, the new giro is the product of many extraordinary recent improvements on the bastard airplane with rotors whose crude ancestor Inventor Juan de la Cierva first made hover in the air 13 years ago. The modern giro is completely wingless, is merely a fuselage with a propeller, a tail, a direct-control rotor. The pilot sets the giro's course by tilting the rotor. In the "readable" model the engine for the first time is behind and below the pilot. This gives him perfect vision on the highway, better balance...
Soon to be adapted to the "roadable" giro is Inventor Cierva's new "jump take-off"-a method by which the giro for the first time can actually rise straight into the air. This is done by briefly gearing the rotor blades to the engine and whirling them at top speed while their angle of incidence is zero. When the clutch is disengaged and the blades are suddenly given a sharp angle of incidence, the giro jumps some 15 feet straight off the ground. Then the propeller drags the giro forward...
...join these terrific speeds and pressures, Scientist Svedberg enclosed his rotor so that it spins in hydrogen reduced to 1/30 atmospheric pressure. Driving mechanism consists essentially of two turbines, the size of thread spools, against which oil is pumped at 800 lb. per sq. in. pressure. To prevent overheating of bearings, 45 minutes are required to work the rotor up to operating speed, 45 minutes more to slow it down. The rotor is oval in shape because an oval is less likely to fly apart than a circle...
...Earth at the Equator. Particles whirled at that rate are subjected to a force 250,000 times that of gravity. In short spurts the centrifuge can rotate up to 160,000 r.p.m., exaggerating gravity 1,100,000 times. If this speed were maintained more than a few seconds the rotor would fly into smithereens. To prevent injury or death in case of such a mishap the 20-lb. rotor is girt by an 800-lb. steel shell, 5 in. thick...