Rotor

The pilot of a TV news helicopter used the wind from the aircraft's rotor to push a stranded deer to safety after it lost its footing on a frozen lake and could not get up. A small crowd had gathered to watch the deer struggling on Lake Thunderbird. With the helicopter's camera rolling, KWTV pilot Mason Dunn used the wind from the rotor to push the deer, sending it sliding on its belly across the ice until it reached shore and ran into a nearby wooded area.

Up, up and not quite away. That's the frustrating story of human-powered helicopters and the prize coveted by virtually everyone who has designed the cumbersome beasts and tried to get them aloft. So far, nobody has come up with a muscle-driven machine capable of hovering for 1 minute and rising 3 meters - requirements for the Igor I. Sikorsky Prize, an honor the helicopter industry has dangled before aeronautics buffs for 32 years. The prize has been offered so long that the booty, initially $10,000, became embarrassingly small.

The Army today grounded all 640 of its Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk utility helicopters after a crash Tuesday at Ft. Rucker, Ala., which killed the pilot and two passengers. It is the second grounding in 11 months for the workhorse Blackhawk, made by Sikorsky Aircraft Division of United Technologies Corp., and another in a series of mishaps plaguing U.S. military helicopters.

When a U.S. military helicopter was destroyed in the backyard of Osama bin Laden's compound, it left not only a pile of smoldering wreckage but tantalizing evidence of a secret stealth chopper. The quest for a helicopter that can slip behind enemy lines without being heard or detected by radar has been the Holy Grail of military aviation for decades and until this week nobody had thought such a craft existed. But aviation experts are now convinced that the Pentagon may have developed such an aircraft.

When a U.S. military helicopter was destroyed in the backyard of Osama bin Laden's compound, it left not only a pile of smoldering wreckage but tantalizing evidence of a secret stealth chopper. The quest for a helicopter that can slip behind enemy lines without being heard or detected by radar has been the Holy Grail of military aviation for decades and until this week nobody had thought such a craft existed. But aviation experts are now convinced that the Pentagon may have developed such an aircraft.

A romantic wedding in the Tuscan countryside ended with injuries after an attempt to launch the bride's bouquet from a plane brought down the tiny aircraft. Italian police say two people were hurt in the crash of the ultralight plane after the bridal bouquet got caught in the aircraft's rear rotor. Police in the nearby town of Piombino said the pilot was lightly injured in the crash, while the passenger who threw the bouquet had several broken bones. The bride and groom were not aboard the plane.

Citing possible gearbox problems, the Navy and Marine Corps on Saturday grounded all CH 53-E Super Stallion helicopters, one of a series of trouble-plagued aircraft that have caused more than 225 deaths since 1969. Lt. Col. Jerry Shelton said that, pending an inspection of main gearbox assembly parts on the No. 2 engine, there would be no flights of the CH 53-Es from the Marine Corps Air Station at the Tustin base, as well as other bases across the nation.

The Police Department's new $500,000 "Quiet Knight" helicopter will take to the city skies for the first time in the line of duty Monday, officials said. The Hughes 500E, the first "quiet" helicopter to be used in law enforcement, is equipped with a state-of-the-art tail rotor that provides a near-silent flight, according to Lt. Robert Morrison, chief of the Police Aero Bureau. The Police Department's helicopter division flies most of its 3,000 hours a year at night, Sgt.

A U.S. Marine Corps Super Stallion helicopter on a training mission crashed Sunday in a vacant field in Laguna Hills, killing one person and injuring four others, a Marine spokesman said. All aboard were military personnel. Their names were not immediately released. A spokesman for the El Toro Marine Base said that one of the injured was taken to Mission Community Hospital. The others were taken to a medical clinic at the base.

The Army on Wednesday grounded its fleet of AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships, describing the action as a precautionary one in light of a fatal crash last week. The service said that the directive applied to all 264 of the new-model gunships now in the inventory and would remain in effect until an investigation of the crash, on Aug. 21 at Ft. Rucker, Ala., was completed. An instructor pilot was killed and a student pilot was seriously injured in that crash.

Tackling three sports at once has a strange effect on triathletes: It makes them famously open-minded. Always in learning mode, tri guys and gals flock to clinics to improve their swim-bike-run, pay online coaches big bucks for training advice and love to experiment with far-out, supposedly performance-improving gear — often long before their single-sport counterparts. Here's a look at some of the hottest innovations for which triathletes are currently opening their minds and wallets.

The crash of a NATO aircraft in volatile southern Afghanistan killed three U.S. service members and a civilian contractor, the Western military said Friday. A number of others onboard were injured in the overnight crash in Zabol province, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement, without giving details. It identified the craft as an Air Force CV-22 Osprey, which uses tilt-rotor technology to take off and land like a helicopter but fly like a plane. The Taliban said it had shot down the aircraft, but insurgents routinely issue such claims whenever a Western plane or helicopter goes down.

A romantic wedding in the Tuscan countryside ended with injuries after an attempt to launch the bride's bouquet from a plane brought down the tiny aircraft. Italian police say two people were hurt in the crash of the ultralight plane after the bridal bouquet got caught in the aircraft's rear rotor. Police in the nearby town of Piombino said the pilot was lightly injured in the crash, while the passenger who threw the bouquet had several broken bones. The bride and groom were not aboard the plane.

Frank Nicolas Piasecki, an aviation pioneer who invented the twin-rotor technology that led to development of the widely flown Chinook heavy-lift helicopter, has died. He was 88. Piasecki, who had recently suffered a stroke, died Monday at his home in Haverford, Pa., his family said in a statement. He is believed to have died of cardiac arrest.

The pilot of a TV news helicopter used the wind from the aircraft's rotor to push a stranded deer to safety after it lost its footing on a frozen lake and could not get up. A small crowd had gathered to watch the deer struggling on Lake Thunderbird. With the helicopter's camera rolling, KWTV pilot Mason Dunn used the wind from the rotor to push the deer, sending it sliding on its belly across the ice until it reached shore and ran into a nearby wooded area.

A San Fernando Valley manufacturing company pleaded guilty Tuesday to selling the Army and Air Force substandard rotor pins for their fleets of Black Hawk helicopters. Under the terms of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Apex Manufacturing Co. of Sun Valley is to pay $793,000 restitution and a $400,000 fine. The deal is subject to approval by U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Morrow, who set sentencing for Nov. 28.

Residents won't have to lose any more sleep to the noisy whir of police helicopters patrolling at night. Police say their newly purchased $414,000 helicopter, with a state-of-the-art tail rotor, makes the chopper's flight virtually silent. The department is the first in the country to use the new silent helicopter, said William Reed, city public information officer. Delivery of the helicopter is expected late this week, and the machine should be fully operational two weeks later, he said.

Their name conjures up the most celebrated moment of America's post-Sept. 11 military campaigns. Now the Navy SEALs belong to a grimmer chapter in history: the most deadly incident for U.S. forces in the 10-year Afghanistan war. Three months after they killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan and cemented their place in military legend, the SEALs suffered a devastating loss when nearly two dozen of the elite troops were among...

The trouble-plagued MV-22 Osprey aircraft passed another round of flight tests, moving a step closer to joining the Marine Corps fleet, military officials said in Raleigh. The tilt-rotor aircraft was grounded for about 18 months after two crashes in 2000 that killed 23 servicemen in Arizona and North Carolina. The Marine Corps is preparing a report to Congress that is likely to recommend approval of funding for hundreds of the aircraft, officials said.

Question: On a recent drive through the San Gabriel Mountains, my steering wheel started to shimmy violently when going down hill. The problem went away shortly after. Can you tell me what caused this problem? And now that it has gone away, can I forget about it? S.T. Answer: You can forget about it, but only at your own peril.