Random part of the day: Upper Swash Plate, No. 1

Interesting part. I think I understand how it works. Could be some fun uses for it.

I looked at the piece and thought,"What is that used for?" but after looking at the one set it's been used in, my guess would be the rotor assembly.

It appears in only one set: 42145, and it's used for the big top blade.
"That's all I have to say about that."

@Formendacil said:
"Looks like it could double as a swash buckle, really."

If you put it under enough pressure. it will certainly buckle.

@Miyakan said:
"Interesting part. I think I understand how it works. Could be some fun uses for it."

I was quickly able to spot it under the main rotor on the set it appears in. It appears to sit around the drive shaft for the main rotor, and connects to linkages attached to each individual blade. Presumably the lower swash plate (which would not rotate) pushes up against this (which does rotate with the main rotor), and the five linkages cause the pitch of the individual rotor blades to change, allowing you to control the amount of lift that’s generated, without changing the speed of the rotor.

In a real helicopter, there would either have to be a smaller one of these around the tail rotor, or that would use a change of speed to increase or decrease the amount of counter-rotation so you can control yaw.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Miyakan said:
"Interesting part. I think I understand how it works. Could be some fun uses for it."

I was quickly able to spot it under the main rotor on the set it appears in. It appears to sit around the drive shaft for the main rotor, and connects to linkages attached to each individual blade. Presumably the lower swash plate (which would not rotate) pushes up against this (which does rotate with the main rotor), and the five linkages cause the pitch of the individual rotor blades to change, allowing you to control the amount of lift that’s generated, without changing the speed of the rotor.

In a real helicopter, there would either have to be a smaller one of these around the tail rotor, or that would use a change of speed to increase or decrease the amount of counter-rotation so you can control yaw."

I'll have to see if I can get a look at it the next show I'm at.

Looks like 5-fold symmetry, which seems uncommon

Boy that's a funky one

I'm undecided on the utility of this part. Guess I'm a bit swishy-swashy.

Lower Swash-Buckle sold separately...:D

If soup goes in a soup dish and cake goes on a cake tray I wonder what manner of food would be served on a swash plate

What an interesting piece..! As a non-Technic guy (mostly), this is a rare case of a piece I've never seen before.

@cabbie: We need more of those.

@TransNeonOrangeSpaceman said:
"What an interesting piece..! As a non-Technic guy (mostly), this is a rare case of a piece I've never seen before."

New part, for the Airbus helo released late last year... 42145 and, so far, only appearing in that set.

Fingers crossed we eventually get similar parts for 3 and 4 blade rotors.

@PurpleDave said:
"In a real helicopter, there would either have to be a smaller one of these around the tail rotor, or that would use a change of speed to increase or decrease the amount of counter-rotation so you can control yaw."

Mostly correct. A helicopter has a much simpler mechanism on the tail rotor, which only adjusts prop pitch in a uniform manner. The tail rotor’s primary job is to move air left and right, so doesn’t need to have any cyclic pitch (in which the rotor’s pitch changes as it rotates) like it does for the main rotor.

And neither the main or tail rotors change speed like one would imagine. Instead the engine runs at an optimum speed, taking into account things like efficiency, weather conditions, rotor size, and many more things that a helicopter pilot would know of that I have no idea about… heh… and both rotors are connected to the engine via a gearbox that simply transmits engine power to both blades. Speed of a helicopter is dictated by the amount of main rotor pitch and angle of attack.

Yes, but is it swashable?

Technic is too complicated for Joe Swash, who prefers Duplo:

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CXBb_gUjteo/