from Hacker News

Indian inventor dies in homemade helicopter accident

by skbohra123 on 8/16/21, 3:10 AM with 170 comments

  • by wincy on 8/16/21, 5:16 AM

    He didn't have a helmet or so much as a seatbelt in the helicopter. The tail rotor flew off, hit the main rotor at a high speed, which knocked him sideways, out of the fuselage. It was at this point his head came into contact with the spinning main rotor, likely killing him instantly. A seatbelt seems like it would have saved his life.

    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

    I saw the video. The rear propeller disintegrated during operation, seemingly from material failure. Two of the blades shot out to the ground and the third went into the main rotor a short while after, unbalancing it and causing the blades to hit the fuselage and the helicopter to jump, twist and throw the pilot out.

    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 was watching the Stuff Made Here Youtube channel (amazing channel btw) and was getting tempted by Shane's (guy running said channel) shop tour ([1]). Surely I could get tool X and operate it safely? But yeah .. I'd likely get myself maimed or worse. YouTube makes this sort of stuff seem so accessible, this is a reminder of the obvious .. power tools and moving parts can kill. As software people, we sometimes don't realize this. Stay safe y'all!

    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

    Saw the "English version" of Indian news articles keep refering to the guy as a high school dropout in the headlines and sub headings. That's a mighty odd description that has nothing to do with the incident. I found that rather derisive and left a bitter aftertaste.

    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

    >The inventor taught himself the basics of aeronautical engineering using YouTube and over two years built a single-seater helicopter using a car engine and scrap metal.

    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

    It is sad his passion to build and create ended with this accident. I have built and flown my own aircraft and even with excellent supervision and safety procedures in place, I still wonder if an improperly deburred rivet hole or a bad batch of resin will end up being the cause of my demise.

  • by TomAbel on 8/16/21, 12:59 PM

    What type of rotor system did it have? Youtuber Peter Sripol has a video where he designed a rubber band powered helicopter with a working tail rotor to show the mechanics of how a helicopter works. In the video he shows and explains why a stability mechanism is important and at 2:56 in the video he says that you see all these people on YouTube making their own helicopters that don't know anything about helicopters building rigid rotors system and that he is glad the helicopters are underpowered because they would just end up killing the people around them.

    Here is the video its worth a watch from the start

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUFMMTsmsUE

  • by WalterBright on 8/16/21, 8:53 AM

    Helicopters are very expensive to operate, because they rely heavily on parts that cannot be allowed to fail. Hence those parts and the maintenance on them is very expensive.

    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

    Relevant (and terribly interesting) wiki page[1]. I was impressed it was already updated with this accident.

    [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors_killed_by_...

  • by dukeofdoom on 8/16/21, 6:27 AM

    While not a helicopter, a Paramotor is surprisingly easy to build.

    Homemade Electric Paramotor

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf60TTqDsfM

  • by livinginfear on 8/16/21, 7:43 AM

    It's a shame that someone so dedicated to their passions had to die young.

    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

    Why is this guy being called an inventor? The helicopter was invented over 100 year ago (1907). He was a tinkerer or hobbyist.

  • by juniperplant on 8/16/21, 10:04 AM

  • by spoonjim on 8/16/21, 5:37 AM

    Creating an almost-working helicopter with this level of resources is a huge achievement — it’s like a 5 foot guy making a slam dunk. To a seven footer it’s “just a helicopter” but honestly the world has lost a great talent.

  • by laichzeit0 on 8/16/21, 9:03 AM

    > His friends said that the helicopter had lifted two or three feet above the ground but soon the blade tore off and struck him

    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

    Rest in Peace, Ismael.

    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

    Dying buy your own creation is just the final tier of fun in inventing.

    Stand back, I built this sh*t myself!

    RIP buddy.

  • by jwsteigerwalt on 8/16/21, 10:58 AM

    I really take offense with some of the descriptions in the article. He did’t learn aerospace engineering from watching YouTube. As one of my professors (who had multiple degrees from India’s finest engineering schools) put it on the first day of class “helicopters are generally a bad idea…”

  • by hungryhobo on 8/16/21, 5:26 AM

    as unfortunate as the event is, inventor is probably not the right description.

  • by JabavuAdams on 8/16/21, 1:41 PM

    Sad

  • by redis_mlc on 8/16/21, 4:59 AM

    Most of the original airplane inventors died testing their inventions, and even more helicopter and submarine - and half of the X-plane pilots.

    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.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna_Reitsch

  • by mastrsushi on 8/17/21, 5:02 AM

    Yeah this 3rd world trend of home made vehicles needs to stop. Or else prepare for a world of AFV styled compilation videos.

  • by baybal2 on 8/16/21, 11:19 AM

    Scary thing to know. I tried to make a motoglider in my teen years, and could've been doing first test flights if not for my family sending me abroad few months before I can finish it.