Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 284 Helicopter Piloting

After the Marine Corps fire support team withdrew with the H5 helicopter, Wang Gensheng also withdrew with the rearguard assault team.

There was no other way; holding the airport would be a war of attrition, a positional war, and Wang Gensheng's 800 marines simply couldn't afford to fight a positional war or a war of attrition.

So, taking advantage of the fact that the encirclement had not yet been formed and that retreat was still possible, Wang Gensheng decisively led the marines to retreat.

Anyway, his mission was already complete. His task was to take over Hagaru-ri Airport and then blow up the runway to prevent US troops from escaping by plane.

In response, Wang Gensheng not only blew up Hagaru-ri Airport, but also seized and returned the thirty-odd transport planes on the airport.

Just after Wang Gensheng and the others retreated, Smith also breathed a sigh of relief. Although they had lost about thirty transport planes and the runway at Hagaru-ri Airport had been bombed, making it impossible for the transport planes to land for the time being.

However, it doesn't matter, because Hagaru-ri Airport was originally a field airport, and the airport's runway was formed by compacting dirt roads.

Therefore, they did not pay much attention to the three large craters, each ten meters in diameter and more than three meters deep, that Wang Gensheng left on the runway of Hagaru-ri Airport.

Although the pit looked very big, in Smith's opinion, repairing these big pits would be a task that could be completed in three or four hours at most, and would only take three or four hours at most.

Of course, while Wang Gensheng was retreating, a chase ensued on the twenty-kilometer stretch from Xinxingli to Xiajieyuli.

The Ninth Army Corps was in pursuit, while the First Lion Army was fleeing. However, the Ninth Army Corps naturally had to take over the supplies left behind by the fleeing U.S. troops during the pursuit.

After all, during the days of ambush and travel, due to the air blockade, the Ninth Army Corps did not actually receive much logistical support, especially food. Therefore, it was more important to use the supplies left by the US army to replenish themselves after defeating the US army.

While Smith was busy repairing the airport runway, Wang Gensheng also carried Smith's H5 helicopter for three kilometers before stopping in a secluded place.

After checking the time, Wang Gensheng addressed the group of Marines:

"It's getting late, you guys should get some rest! We might need to coordinate another attack on Hagaru-ri Airport tomorrow morning!"

However, while the Marines chose to rest, Wang Gensheng did not. Instead, he began to figure out how to fly the H5 helicopter. After all, helicopters are very important to the transportation industry, so if the H5 helicopter could be brought back to the country intact, it would definitely be of great help to helicopter research in the country.

Piloting a helicopter is completely different from piloting a winged aircraft that needs to taxi on a runway for takeoff, especially in terms of difficulty. If piloting a winged aircraft that takes off from a runway is as difficult as piloting an automatic car, then piloting a helicopter is as difficult as piloting a manual car.

Driving a manual transmission car is already quite complex, requiring the driver to grip the steering wheel firmly with both hands, shift gears with the right hand, and control the clutch, accelerator, and brake with the left and right feet respectively. However, piloting a helicopter requires even greater concentration, using both hands and feet, making it several times more difficult than driving a manual transmission car.

Wang Gensheng had only seen a detailed explanation of how to fly a helicopter online before he traveled through time, but he had never actually done it himself.

Of course, although I haven't had any hands-on experience, I do have a fairly good understanding of the operating principles and control principles of helicopters, so I'm not completely clueless.

In general, helicopters are powered by engines, propeller blades generate lift, rotor hubs control the rotor, and tail rotors are responsible for adjusting the direction of the nose.

When flying a helicopter, the pilot uses a variety of control mechanisms in the cockpit, including the cyclic pitch lever, collective pitch lever, and pedals.

To control the flight direction of a helicopter, the cyclic pitch stick controls horizontal movement, the collective pitch stick controls takeoff and landing, and the foot pedals adjust the heading.

Pushing the control stick forward or backward allows the helicopter to fly forward or backward, while pushing it left or right controls left or right flight. The rotor's lift comes from its rotation, which creates an upward-spinning cone.

When hovering at low altitude, the upward pull of the rotor cone balances the helicopter's weight. When the pilot pushes the stick forward, the cone tilts forward, and the rotor thrust generates vertical and horizontal components, with the horizontal component propelling the helicopter forward.

When the driver operates the cyclic pitch lever, this action triggers a series of complex mechanical linkages.

Driven by hydraulic cylinders, the pitch control lever tilts the stationary ring below the autoswashplate, which in turn causes the moving ring above to tilt synchronously. This series of actions forces the moving ring of the autoswashplate to swing the blades through the pitch control lever, causing the blade angle of attack to change periodically. Ultimately, the entire rotor tilts, and the direction of the rotor's thrust changes, thus propelling the helicopter into flight.

The helicopter's forward and backward flight is achieved by pushing the cyclic pitch control stick forward or backward. During actual flight, the forward and backward components of the rotor thrust directly affect the flight direction. For example, when the cyclic pitch control stick is pushed forward, the tilting of the rotor thrust not only accelerates the helicopter but also generates a pitching moment, causing the fuselage to tilt downward. The pilot must pull back the stick in a timely manner to balance the pitching moment; otherwise, the helicopter will continue to pitch down and may lose control.

Helicopter altitude changes primarily rely on the operation of the collective pitch control stick. By raising or lowering the collective pitch control stick, the pilot can easily control the helicopter's ascent and descent. Raising the collective pitch control stick pushes the stationary ring of the automatic swashplate upwards, causing the moving ring to rise accordingly. This, in turn, increases the angle of attack of all rotor blades via the pitch control stick. This results in increased lift from the rotor blades, which in turn increases the overall thrust of the rotor, propelling the helicopter upwards. Simultaneously, a steel cable operates in sync with the collective pitch control stick, controlling the fuel regulator to increase fuel injection to ensure that the engine's output power matches the increased collective pitch power demand of the rotor.

When the collective pitch lever is lowered, the hydraulic cylinder pushes the stationary ring of the automatic swashplate to move down as a whole, and the moving ring descends accordingly. This reduces the angle of attack of all the blades through the pitch lever, thereby reducing the lift of the blades and reducing the overall thrust of the rotor, thus propelling the helicopter to descend.

Furthermore, the helicopter's heading is adjusted using two pedals. When the pilot presses the left pedal, the helicopter turns left; pressing the right pedal turns right. This is because the pedals adjust the tail rotor angle, affecting heading. By changing the position of one pedal, the angle of the tail rotor blades can be adjusted, thus changing the tail rotor pitch.

The tail rotor plays a crucial role in helicopter flight, primarily counteracting the reaction torque generated by the main rotor's rotation. If the tail rotor fails, the nose will rotate in the opposite direction to the main rotor's rotation, which can easily lead to a flight accident.

(End of this chapter)