Re: [Paddlewise] aspect ratio?

Jach Martin wrote:
> fast, but surprisingly efficient.  Igor Sikorsky called it a rotating 
> wing assembly, and Sikorsky drawings still refer to it in this term.  
> Fascinating, huh?  And all this based on Greenland paddles!

Actually the rotating wing assembly that inspired the helicopter
was invented by the Spanish inventor De La Cierva.  He invented the
autogiro in the first half of this century--an aircraft almost identical 
to the helicopter except for that the engine moves a front propeler, 
not the rotor.  

As most Europeans know, Spain is the favorite summer vacation country
of most northern cultures.  Thousands of Sweedish, Norwegians, Icelanders,
Finnish, Germans, British, Danish, etc, move to Spain during the summer. 
Not surprisingly, the warm shores of the Spanish Mediterranean shore
are also the favorite summer residence of the Greenlanders. They would
take their paddles with them every summer.

Strong evidence suggests that De La Cierva borrowed a few paddles from
the Greenlanders, during a summer vacation, to make the rotor of his
autogiro.

The presence of Greenland paddles in the Mediterranean has had other
consequences. The Medici also spent their summer vacation in Spain
attracted by the beutiful Nordic blondes that take sun baths on the beach
with minimum attire.  They noticed the highly efficient Greenland paddles
and took the idea back to Venize for their gondolas.  Hence the long
tradition of long narrow blades of the gondoliers.

- Julio
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