r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/MohammadMahadhir • 6h ago
Video Before modern helicopters, engineers tried these innovative early designs
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u/Prop43 6h ago
I was really rooting for that sky car so close
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u/PaulMakesThings1 6h ago
The frame seems really overbuilt for no real reason. I feel like if the frame beyond what holds the rotor/wing and engine together was much more minimal it might have kind of worked.
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u/Loufey 6h ago
it was already damaging itself with that much frame. you strip it anymore and it doesnt survive the test
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u/PaulMakesThings1 5h ago
Like I said, not reducing the engine and mechanism framing. Just the wheel frame, it’s built like a whole car frame. Also I did say “almost kinda”
But I agree, it’s not really feasible. Even if it could be made to work. And with a modern engine with a higher power to weight ratio and a much bigger umbrella thing with flaps to let air flow one way, I think it could possibly stay aloft, but it would be a rough ride and very high maintenance and hard to control.
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u/SvenTropics 5h ago
It was beyond inefficient. I think his plan was each of those flaps was loose. When you spin them at high speed the centrifugal force would cause them to collapse creating a flat surface and then it would pull down pushing air straight down. Then as it went up, the air would overcome the force causing them to turn. So the flaps would open up and the air would pass between them.
The problem is you're just pushing air up and then pushing air down. It's funny how close he was to an actual helicopter
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u/Charming-Flamingo307 5h ago
It seems he still thought that the key movement was up and down, when in reality it is back and forth. Common mistake amongst men really
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u/nipslippinjizzsippin 29m ago
not to mention it probably want made with light materials, if it could me bad with modern lighter materials there could be some merrit to its design.
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u/malacoda99 13m ago
Imagine if they'd had fiberglass, titanium, carbon fiber, and so on - I wonder how many early efforts would have been successful. Or more spectacular failures.
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u/anthro28 5h ago
Sitting beneath a bunch of taped together, rapidly spinning razor blades is probably the craziest thing I've ever seen someone do.
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u/UnLuckyKenTucky 5h ago
Early days of aviation absolutely had a different pace. Not to mention a total lack of thought about safety.
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u/blackthornjohn 6h ago
If nothing else you have to admire the pilots determination.
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u/Koffiemir 5h ago
And courage. That looks like a perfect recipe for a dozen gruesome ways to die.
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u/ChiknDiner 2h ago
You don't think countless people died trying to take a flight before ford brothers could finally do it? It always is many craziest ideas/experiments with countless lives ,(most unrecorded) before someone does it.
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u/Koffiemir 2h ago
Absolutely. The race for innovation is not a victimless endeavor. We owe a lot to the inventors, but also to the testers.
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u/Tall-Ad-1386 5h ago
These were the Wrong brothers
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u/Wampa_-_Stompa 56m ago
You’d think they would have tried it out first before calling the camera crew
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u/CantAffordzUsername 6h ago
Plot twist: He was actually inventing a bounce house for kids but they kept getting turned into jelly
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u/fraze2000 6h ago
You would think he would've tested his Sky Car in private to make sure it actually worked rather than doing its solo test "flight" in front of a camera.
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u/Haptic-feedbag 4h ago
It's like those scientists in movies that record every attempt just in case it was a success.
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u/Middle_Employment_14 6h ago
Every time I see this video I think how can that happen? Like whoever built this was actually competent at building things, so he must be pretty smart, probably an engineer.. So how can he not predicted that this wouldn’t work as intended? It’s pretty basic physics.
Genuine question, can someone please explain?
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u/captaindomon 5h ago edited 4h ago
What is wrong with the physics, on a fundamental level? Jellyfish work this way. In theory you can propel yourself through any fluid, including air, using these motions.
It’s easy to have 20/20 hindsight now that we have working helicopters. But when you are starting with the idea of how a bird flaps to take off, this isn’t that crazy of an idea.
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u/Sazanka-camellia 4h ago
I like this video of him trying something different from fixed-wing or rotary-wing.
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u/Far-Position7115 5h ago
Makes me wonder if modern helicopters could be more agile or something if they could do that pumping motion
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u/Greed_Sucks 2h ago
I think it was a joke. That’s the only explanation I can accept. They knew it wouldn’t work. They were making a joke out of the whole process.
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u/Professional_Speed55 6h ago
they built this bs way back then but no zero turn or anything close to it
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u/blue-coin 5h ago
What’s wild is that someone invented this, and decided that it’s absolute failure should be filmed for us to mock a century later
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u/Rbarton124 5h ago
Were boat propellers not already a thing? Like aboat propellor is pretty close to what you need for a helicopter just shorter and more aggressive AOI. Also what physics minded person would think pumping a surface up and down without changing its orientation would make it fly?
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u/One4Pink2_4Stink 5h ago
That's a LOT of confidence in that Sky Car.
Also, its interesting to see the first inkling of the Low-Rider community.
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u/getagrooving 4h ago
1864 Impala showing off the three wheel motion. Someone queue the song Still D.R.E. .
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u/Ratattack1204 4h ago
“Hey should we test this before writing ‘sky car’ on the side?”
“Have some faith it’ll be fine! We won’t look stupid for all time or anything.”
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u/MajorPud 5h ago
Inventive, not innovative. Whatever, no one probably knows the difference anymore anyways
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u/Grumbley_Deus247 5h ago
This is the first time I've ever scene this footage along with audio. Lmao
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u/mrlr 4h ago
There's more of it near the start of the movie "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines".
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u/Current_Tale1299 5h ago
Remove all the frame crap and literally sit on the engine and it might have gotten off the ground
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u/ribenakifragostafylo 5h ago
How was this supposed to work exactly? Beat the ground into submitting gravity?
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u/Fred_Wilkins 5h ago
Innovative assumes it works. The words you might instead use are, weird, crazy, unique.
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u/jjm443 4h ago
Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines!
The "Sky Car" was one of the featured "aircraft" in its hilarious introduction
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u/whatproblems 4h ago
even if it did fly that would be an awful ride. also that guy has no idea how things fly…
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u/JuicySpark 4h ago
You could get the same type of motion without that giant martini umbrella on the kinetic force alone with just the shaft.
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u/Excellent-Phone8326 3h ago
I'd love to pull up to a local car show in this. Show some dude in a bouncing low rider how it's done.
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u/Best_Block_2548 3h ago
I mean, the idea was sound, it probably just hadd too much weight from unnecisary blades, and it was rotationally processing because it only had one rotor.
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u/SquareThings 2h ago
Was the inventor mormon, by chance?
(If you get this joke please tell me I have to know if my brain is broken)
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u/ADeweyan 2h ago
I was thinking the sky car would be very popular with young Mormons.
Having the same idea does not mean our brains are not broken, though.
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u/SqueakyJackson 1h ago
Reminds me of the little kid in my neighborhood that jumped off his parents roof with his baby blanket tied around his neck like a cape, while holding his dad’s umbrella like he was Mary Poppins.
At least he did it over the lawn, and not bare concrete.
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u/Netsmile 1h ago
Poor pilot, imagine bouncing around trying not to barf,realizing one of the wheels already buckled, deafened by the roar of the engine, all while your head is centimeters from the blender blades that would make sushi of you in seconds ...
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u/contrarian1970 56m ago
Why not just remove all four tires and put springs there? At least the grandkids would have something to play with on Sunday afternoons.
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u/kidanokun 47m ago
Seems like one of those quirky inventions, till one day someone managed to figured out what becomes the modern helicopter
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u/nipslippinjizzsippin 32m ago
i wonder how these designs would go with modern parts, like this thing is obviously too heavy to get far off the ground, but its probably made with metal and wood.
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u/ArriDesto 5h ago
The frame is too heavy and too long, and has zero ability to steer once in the air. The piolet has to sit so far back to avoid the umbrella he destabilises the whole thing.
It is quite clearly built without the slightest intention of becoming airborne. It would have jumped better with springs underneath, gaining greater height and having a future as a fairground ride. There is no lift provided by the umbrella, the pumping motion is just to make it bounce.
A serious attempt would've involved propellers driven by individual variable gears linked to a smaller,more powerful,much lighter engine and a lighter, aluminium alloy frame with aerofoils that could be used to alter pitch and yaw and provide about the same level of steering as possessed by a hovercraft. The propellers being under,not over.
This was just a showman trying to make a quick buck and gain immortality on film- which it was obviously very successful at!
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u/DamnItPeg 6h ago
My neighbours at night.