by skbohra123 on 8/16/21, 3:10 AM with 170 comments
by wincy on 8/16/21, 5:16 AM
It was recorded, which is how I know this, I honestly wouldn't suggest looking for it as it's pretty horrific. It's sad that such a smart person didn't apply the most basic of safety protocol though.
by eurasiantiger on 8/16/21, 5:24 AM
Very sad accident indeed. It makes one think that maybe the ”hero inventor” stereotype does not lend itself well to our current level of technology: it’s too easy to fatally overlook something vitally important.
by brutus1213 on 8/16/21, 4:42 AM
I'm also curious how one builds up strong manufacturing skills safely? I thought high school shop class no longer exists. Makerspaces sometimes have kind souls willing to help but I have seen people do dangerous things happen.
[1] just to be clear, the channel's author does talk about the importance of safety and doesn't promote recklessness. It is just me getting tempted to replicate.
by vagrantJin on 8/16/21, 6:05 AM
Education does not neccesarily prevent accidents. Even spacecraft, built by the best engineers in the world, with the best materials, tested for years, routinely fail and sometimes get people killed after spending 100s of millions of dollars.
by SapporoChris on 8/16/21, 4:47 AM
I am speaking without enough knowledge. But I have to wonder if this serves as a harsh criticism of Youtube. I do understand Youtube is a mixed bag of resources. More structured learning might have resulted in better understanding of material strengths, testing, and safety.
Inspite of the failure, I admire his pursuit and find the article inspirational.
by diskzero on 8/16/21, 5:14 AM
by TomAbel on 8/16/21, 12:59 PM
Here is the video its worth a watch from the start
by WalterBright on 8/16/21, 8:53 AM
A helicopter is an inherently unstable machine that wants to crash.
Back in the 70's people would design and build radio controlled helicopters. They'd wreck them constantly while trying to learn to fly them. Being able to hover one was quite an accomplishment.
by elromulous on 8/16/21, 5:23 AM
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors_killed_by_...
by dukeofdoom on 8/16/21, 6:27 AM
Homemade Electric Paramotor
by livinginfear on 8/16/21, 7:43 AM
Did he spend any time modeling the physics of a helicopter control system? It would have to be of the most complex control systems to model. You don't just build a helicopter. Maybe he should have begun by building a scaled-down version instead. Maybe he did all of this due diligence, and just overlooked some unfortunate minor detail. Some of the comments here are blaming materials failure.
by rowland66 on 8/16/21, 2:01 PM
by juniperplant on 8/16/21, 10:04 AM
by spoonjim on 8/16/21, 5:37 AM
by laichzeit0 on 8/16/21, 9:03 AM
Slightly inaccurate. If you watch the video you clearly see the blade tore off before it lifted at all.
by RickJWagner on 8/16/21, 2:57 PM
Who knows what the world has lost. Obviously a very accomplished inventor, he may have brought us great things.
by beprogrammed on 8/16/21, 5:14 AM
Stand back, I built this sh*t myself!
RIP buddy.
by jwsteigerwalt on 8/16/21, 10:58 AM
by hungryhobo on 8/16/21, 5:26 AM
by JabavuAdams on 8/16/21, 1:41 PM
by redis_mlc on 8/16/21, 4:59 AM
It sounds like he was using the "tie it to the ground with a rope" technique, which most of the pioneers used, so credit for that.
I'd probably go further than just a rope (a telescoping ground mounting with pipes), but note that ground resonance can still destroy a helicopter and kill you.
Building personal full-size airplane models is common across India and China, but this is the first time I heard of one with an engine and that was flyable. (In the US, most people can afford to be involved in aviation, but it's 10x outside the affordability of the average person in the developing world.)
Hanna Reitsch, the famous woman Nazi test pilot, actually became famous for demoing the first production helicopter, the Fa 61, daily at a "fair" inside a building (!), so some people are just really talented at flying.
Ironically, after being captured by the British, she was released because although she was a great test pilot at manipulating the controls, she knew nothing about aeronautical engineering beyond subjective descriptions like, "the controls were too heavy", etc.
by mastrsushi on 8/17/21, 5:02 AM
by baybal2 on 8/16/21, 11:19 AM