Dream Invention Technology Politics
The Power of the Dream
April 16, 2005
Mini-helicopter equipped with two counter-rotating rotors, designed by Woody Norris.
Noted by Charles G. Landemaine, currently living in Brazil:
landemaine
gmail.com
Woody Norris invented and built this ultra-light helicopter powered by a 50-75 hp engine running at 4,000 rpm, capable of flying at 100 km/h with a two-hour range. A video shows the aircraft in flight. Yaw control is achieved by manipulating two rear vanes that deflect the airflow from the two counter-rotating rotors. Norris eliminated all the mechanical complexity typically associated with rotary-wing aircraft—specifically, "collective pitch" and "cyclic pitch variation." Translation is accomplished by tilting the entire motor-propeller assembly relative to its load (landing gear plus pilot), effectively creating a "gravity pilot," much like in ultralight aircraft.
The drawback is that in the event of engine failure, the pilot cannot glide the craft using autorotation. The aircraft simply plummets like a stone. I know helicopters and autogyros well—I’ve flown both. For autogyros, I flew Bensen models, which appear notably in one of the James Bond films. Moreover, Cierva, the Spanish inventor of the autogyro, happens to be one of my ancestors.
Through such achievements, we glimpse the capacity of Americans—or perhaps New Zealanders (I couldn’t determine Norris’s nationality)—to plunge into the most audacious ventures. Consider, for example, the flight of the latest realization of a lifelong dreamer, the American visionary Burt Rutan:
Rutan’s spacecraft, designed to venture to the edge of the upper atmosphere.
This is no model. You can see the details at:
http://news.com.com/Photos+SpaceShipOne/2009-1016_3-5388873.html?tag=nl
America is the land of all dangers. There, military "black programs" expose humanity to the greatest risks, as this technology serves, sadly, the megalomaniac, greedy, soulless dreams of an extremely powerful military-industrial (and oil) lobby—whom politicians merely obey, like puppets. With such leaders, we are undoubtedly in poor shape. Our politicians casually refer to the President’s homeland security advisor as “Candy Rice,” forgetting she was formerly CEO of the oil giant Exxon. A sweet treat with the scent of oil—and blood. Yet America is also the land of all hopes, all revivals, and the most outrageous dreams. I believe we can no longer rely on revivals from old Europe, which is now in the hands of mere merchants, exemplified by Raffarin. By "federating" under the guise of "progress" and "advancement," Europe is selling off what once made it proud—their social system—and is simply falling apart. Recently, Chirac appeared utterly ridiculous confronting young people he accused of lacking enthusiasm. Not everyone can be a professional politician, someone who has done nothing else in life, ending his days in a chateau whose renovation was paid for by taxpayers, while surrounding land was gifted by a humanitarian foundation—someone who owes his continued freedom solely to his re-election, rather than prosecution for misuse of public funds. I recall the faces of those young people, none daring to confront him directly. Children beginning to realize they are being lied to everywhere, every day, and facing the head of all liars, who couldn’t even fool them, which only annoyed him.
European dreams crawl along the ground, barely above the daisies. I believe that if salvation ever emerges, it might arise in the New World, capable of generating both the worst and the best. Consider this example: RFID chips have appeared. Here, nobody has moved. In the United States, consumer advocacy groups immediately forced Gillette to back down from plans to embed 100-micron chips in half a million future razors. It didn’t take long. Threatened with a boycott, the company reversed course on a project that could only provoke deep unease. But it’s only postponed. There, people will fight. Here, they won’t. I think back to the courageous speech of Senator Byrd (7 MB video) before the Iraq war began. Could we find a politician in France—or even in Europe—capable of holding such a stance?
We are old countries, and perhaps we deserve our political leaders, like Chirac and his prime minister, Raffarin. Two individuals utterly devoid of imagination and long-term vision. Political shopkeepers. The others—Hollande, Sarkozy, Barnier—are no better. Demagogy, opportunism, excessive ambition, and complete lack of imagination.
Life is nothing without dreams, without imagination. I don’t believe I’ll find anyone in France willing to build an Egyptian ship from the Old Kingdom to attempt crossing the Atlantic. I won’t even find children thinking about building a simple remote-controlled model. Years have passed, and nothing has come. I’ll have to do it myself. I won’t find computer scientists or linguists willing to embark on the fantastic adventure of equipping MSN Messenger with an instant automatic translator, thanks to semantic input technology. The only person who built a pyramid model following my plans was a Canadian. Nor will I find a technical school willing to take on a promising project for a water purifier combining MHD and solar energy.
Dreams, both good and bad, seem to dwell on the other side of the Atlantic. Here, paraphrasing Brel, we might sing:
- We don’t dream here, sir,
We don’t dream—we wait...*
Perhaps the sky will simply fall on our heads.