Why Helicopter Design is Difficult

This short video of visualized airflow around a CH-47 in flight demonstrates the challenges facing rotary wing design engineers. The speaker, Dick Spivey, is considered to be the father of the V-22 program.  (H/T Rotor and Wing editor Andrew Parker for this).

Hope, change, deja vu, fertilizer.

In a move certain to distress those who believe that oil spills are caused by presidential proposals to drill offshore, last week the Obama administration announced a new offshore oil and gas lease sale.

Tied to this most generous offer of new leases is a plan to increase the minimum bid from $37.50 to $100 per acre, to "ensure that taxpayers receive fair market value for offshore resources".  This will certainly stick it to the big oil companies who, according to the narrative, curiously spend millions to acquire leases on which they have no intention of drilling.  The fact that oil and mineral leases represent one of the largest sources of nontax revenue to the treasury is apparently beyond the scope of the article.  

The more jaded of you may recall that the president blocked construction of the Keystone XL pipeline the week before, citing the need for further environmental studies, in addition to the three years of existing environmental studies.  In addition, the threat of US sanctions has Iran threatening to block the Strait of Hormuz, and with it much of the middle east's oil production. Other than that, there is really no reason to ramp up domestic production, after all, if we did that, it would be years before we produced any new oil from new drilling, right?

But don't you go thinking that the Obama administration is not in support of offshore drilling, far from it!  In fact, if we go back to April of 2010, mere weeks before the BP spill, Obama proposed opening the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the north slope of Alaska, and areas along the Atlantic coast to drilling for the first time, which was a bold plan.  It was, however, a stupid idea when GW Bush proposed additional drilling in 2008, and at the time a particular Illinois senator called it a capitulation to the oil industry, but no matter.  

For those who work in the industry and live and die by drilling contracts, empty promises to develop offshore resources mean nothing when they are accompanied by a consistent full-court press of government interference in offshore oil and gas production. It’s going to be a long election year.  

Change you can believe in

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this picture will not need much introduction.  This is an aerial shot of one section of Fourchon, Louisiana, drilling central for the Gulf of Mexico, taken on the 27th of October, 2011, over a year after the gulf was long since cleaned up.  


Boats.  Parked.  Everywhere.  In better days, these boats would be out supporting drilling operations and only in port to load and unload.  Unfortunately, this has been the scene since shortly after the Deepwater Horizon disaster.  Followed by an initial uptick in business for Deepwater Horizon response, and followed by a very long and ongoing period of governmental interference with drilling operations in the gulf.  


This is the "boot on the neck", the "boot on the throat", and the tough talking administration judging "whose ass to kick".  Unfortunately, the rest of the industry, and particularly the third party providers like these boat companies are still feeling the pain, and do not factor into the new jobs bill or the 99%.  


By the way, BP just got a new permit to drill in the gulf.  Better luck next time, guys.