Helicopters 2020
A helicopter, sometimes referred to in slang as a ‘chopper’ or ‘helo’ is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft and many forms of VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft cannot perform.
The English word helicopter is adapted from the French word hélicoptère, coined by Gustave Ponton d’Amécourt in 1861. Helicopters were developed and built during the first half-century of flight, with the Focke-Wulf Fw 61 being the first operational helicopter in 1936. Some helicopters reached limited production, but it was not until 1942 that a helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky reached full-scale production, with 131 aircraft built. Though most earlier designs used more than one main rotor, it is the single main rotor with anti-torque tail rotor configuration that has become the most common helicopter configuration. Tandem rotor helicopters are also in widespread use due to their greater payload capacity.
Airlines destiny post COVID-19
For many reasons, world airlines are suffering from their own success. At the start of 2020 with more cities were connected throughout the world than ever before, but then COVID-19 that spreads like wildfire, hit the globe. The combination of the two factors has resulted in a world never seen before: empty. Abandoned city squares, monuments, museums, parks and especially airports point to a disconnected globe. The now disconnected globe means that the airline industry that relied on connecting the dots is grounded and airliners are being stored wherever there is space at airports.
SAA liquidation?
Covid-19 is fatal for people with compromised immune systems. The same can be said of companies with weak balance sheets or in the case of the national airline – no balance sheet at all.
