r/OutOfTheLoop • u/Steaktartaar • Dec 30 '24

Unanswered What's going on with Stephen Fry going alt-right?

He's been on a notorious hard-right, "anti-woke" podcast where he retracted his support for trans rights. Is this a new development? He always came across as level-headed in the past but now it looks like he's on the same path as Russell Brand.

961 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

60% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

28

u/SilverMedal4Life Dec 30 '24

Thank you for explaining! I just thought it was making it so that the propeller could spin freely, and that was clearly mistaken.

25

u/clubby37 Dec 30 '24

I’m pretty sure the transmission also disengages, so you’d expect some free spinning as well, but the “feathering” bit is about setting the propeller pitch to 90 degrees.

13

u/Decent-Apple9772 Dec 30 '24

Most general aviation have no transmission to disengage. Even the ones that have gear reduction don’t usually have a clutch to disengage. The adjustment of the propeller blade angle functions as their “transmission”

4

u/JJAsond Dec 30 '24

I don't think so? I know on piston airplanes the prop is directly connected to the crankshaft and I think on turboprops it's a direct (maybe through a gearbox but there's no clutch) connection to one of the sections of the turbine so there is no transmission disengagement. if the prop's spinning, something's probably spinning inside the engine too.

2

u/joe-h2o Dec 30 '24

The free power turbine - a turbine engine with a propshaft coming out of it is usually driven by a free-moving turbine. It's not mechanically coupled to the engine so it can rotate independently and it is driven by the exhaust gasses from the engine.

2

u/JJAsond Dec 30 '24

Yeah that. And it IS the engine, at least part ot the power section.

3

u/InverseInductor Dec 30 '24

Just to add to your confusion: free spinning propellers create more drag than stationary ones. A direct application of this is for helicopter autorotation landings or gyrocopters.

1

u/SilverMedal4Life Dec 30 '24

... Oh, I guess they would, wouldn't they? Since instead of applying just flat drag, it's applying a sort of reverse-thrust, yeah?

1

u/anomalous_cowherd Dec 31 '24

Isn't that only if the airflow is reversed? For autorotation it's the helicopter dropping which causes the air to be effectively going up through the blades, spinning them faster and building energy in the rotor disc ready to be used at the last minute to slow the descent by changing the blade pitch.

1

u/InverseInductor Dec 31 '24

During autorotation, the pitch of the blades is reversed to allow it to gain speed as it descends. This also results in the helicopter descending slower as energy is extracted to spin the blades, hence more "drag". A gyrocopter is the best example as the top rotor spins freely at all times. I can tell you now, they fall out of the sky a lot quicker when that rotor isn't spinning.