You are correct sir, I just looked that up.
Quote:
Say you have a single-rotor helicopter with standard clockwise turn; The left-side (the honing side) will always be faster than the fuselage of the helecopter while the right-side (the lagging side) will always be slower!
As level speed increases, this honing and lagging also increase so the left side blades are going fastestl, the right-side blades slowest of all and the helicopter itself is somewhere in the middle!
The left-side blades will reach supersonic blade tip speed when the helicopter reaches approximately 350mph! But with the speed of the main rotor blades the left-side will reach supersonic speeds actually before that horizontal straight-line speed is reached. Should this happen the helecopter would most likely be totally unflyable; At transonic speeds the honing blades would be violently flexing as the shockwave attached itself to the top of the blades. As soon at the blades came around to the lagging side they would go subsonic but due to their lagging behind and the forward speed, they would make no practical lift at all.
My only issue is that no heli can get to 350 MPH, therefore, the blades would never break the sound barrier.
If I'm off here, let me know.
AAJagerX