I'm sorry you feel this way HiTech, I certainly do have respect for your knowledge and experience (clearly this isn't reciprocated lol). Presumably though there may be the occassional thing which comes along where you probably take some pleasure in learning something new as I certainly do myself. I have been trying to the best of my ability to communicate what I believe to be just such a thing, all the while maintaining what I hope is a good humour and friendly disposition.
I have at least arrived at a simple experiment which anyone should be able to arrange (and surely considering the strength of opinion against my proposition one which anyone involved in this thread thus far should be eager to perform). As a group of aviation enthusiasts I'm confident that most of us have access to some form of small model aircraft with an electric motor driving a propeller, a childs toy perhaps or something more serious but small enough to suspend from the ceiling by cotton or string in an approximation of a level flight attitude. Aside from any scientific considerations this experiment is great fun
The purpose of the experiment is to examine the effects of gyroscopic precession on an aircraft in motion (specifically in a turn).
The experiment initially requires the motor to be turned off. If there are any control surfaces they should be in the neutral position. The aircraft should be released with the suspending thread taut, at a point removed from the centre of suspension (i.e. off centre) with enough impetus for the momentum to carry it around in a circle. Care should be taken at all times not to allow the suspending thread to become overly twisted, otherwise an undesirable torque might act on the model. If the model is not too heavy for the intended purpose observation should confirm that as it moves around in a circle the nose always points approximately forward. To confirm that there is no bias the test should be conducted in both directions, i.e. left and right hand circles.
All being well we can now turn the motor on and repeat the tests in both directions. (a propeller is actually unnecessary as it is the gyroscopic effect of the motor we are testing, but if the model has one it should not affect the result greatly). Observation should confirm that the model travels around in a circle with the nose forward as before in one direction but not the other (direction dependent on motor spin direction).
At this point the rudder or fin should be moved from the neutral position to the left yaw position and the test repeated in both directions, then subsequently to the right yaw position with the test again repeated in both directions. Observation should confirm that in the direction favoured by gyroscopic precession the model can be made to turn around a very small radius, whereas in the unfavourable direction only large radius turns are possible.
In this simple experiment we made use of a suspending thread as a substitute for lift. Depending on the model used it is possible that the airspeed attained during the testing is insufficient to provide lift, and an argument could be made that this renders the test invalid. However, since the purpose of the experiment is to examine the effects of gyroscopic precession on an aircraft in motion the airspeed need only be sufficient to act appropriately on the fin and rudder.
Conclusions.
An effect was noted which appeared to continuously assist the model to turn in one direction, and continuously resist it in the opposite direction. It would seem safe to assume that gyroscopic precession caused the effect, that it acted continuously due to the continuous change of direction of the model, and that the extent to which this affected the model is a matter of degree. It can be further concluded that given a sufficiently large effect (i.e. by manipulation of factors such as balance and distribution of mass in the aircraft, mass of rotating body, speed of rotation of mass, aerodynamic properties of the aircraft) it would be possible to create an aircraft capable of extreme minimum turning radius in one direction at the expense of a large turning radius in the opposite direction.
It is quite possible that someone might get different results to those outlined above; or that they might draw different conclusions. I think the nature of the investigation having so much contradictory evidence and being such an unfamiliar phenomenon makes it one of enormous interest. Certainly a search on the net shows multiple instances of this very topic, always with similar polarisation of the contributing posters.
