greg@harvard.UUCP (Greg) (01/14/86)
Has anyone noticed that airplane propellors always spin in one direction? I think it's due to the Coriolis force, but I'm not sure... -- gregregreg
phil@isieng.UUCP (Phil Gustafson) (01/16/86)
In article <605@harvard.UUCP> greg@harvard.UUCP (Greg) writes: >Has anyone noticed that airplane propellors always spin in one direction? >I think it's due to the Coriolis force, but I'm not sure... If they spun in the other direction, the plane would go backwards. (:-) Or, they DO spin the other way in Australia! This proves your point! (:-) Actually, it's just a matter of convention. With the exception mentioned below, all U.S. piston engines turn clockwise (as seen by the pilot). British engines turn counterclockwise. This means, for reasons that could tie up a newsgroup for months, that American single-engine aircraft tend to yaw to the left in climb and British ones to the right. The change required in pilot technique is not difficult. Some twin-engine aircraft have counter-rotating props. This is expensive (special tooling for low-production backwards engines and props) but solves the yaw-on-climb problem. phil
kscott@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Kevin Scott%Kuntz) (01/18/86)
In article <605@harvard.UUCP> greg@harvard.UUCP (Greg) writes: >Has anyone noticed that airplane propellors always spin in one direction? >I think it's due to the Coriolis force, but I'm not sure... In article <195@isieng.UUCP> phil@isieng.UUCP (Phil Gustafson) writes: >Actually, it's just a matter of convention. With the exception mentioned >below, all U.S. piston engines turn clockwise (as seen by the pilot). >British engines turn counterclockwise. This means, for reasons that >could tie up a newsgroup for months, that American single-engine aircraft >tend to yaw to the left in climb and British ones to the right. The change >required in pilot technique is not difficult. > >Some twin-engine aircraft have counter-rotating props. This is expensive >(special tooling for low-production backwards engines and props) but >solves the yaw-on-climb problem. An interesting upshot of this was present in the old rotary engine planes. In those earlier days when the the mechanics of cooling was not as advanced, the mechanical engineers figured they could air cool the engine by _attaching_it_to_the_prop_!! So the engine whirled around a mast in the plane, creating a large torque that allowed the fighter pilots to make hairpin right hand U-turns in the world war I days. Turning left was not as easy as it should have been, I imagine. -- Saw it written and I saw it say Pink Moon is on its way And none of you will stand so tall Pink Moon gonna get ye all a Pink Moon - Nick Drake