This weekend I overheard a rather interesting conversation at an airfield here, but did not participate myself.
Two guys with a large silver oldtimer that looked like a "Tante JU" (JU
52, had to look it up) with three props were discussing torque issues.I know that the common way to counteract torque in twin prop (i.e. the banana heli config) HELICOPTERS is to just counterrotate the blades. On my own planes I've never bothered, since I never consciously thought about it.
Google searches showed that counterrotating seems to be the common way to fight it... but why even bother? I'd imagine this here (imagine that's a plane seen from the front or the rear... with the lines being the wings...):
-----(engine)-----(body)-----(engine)-----
Then if the engines counterrotate, it'd be a force distribution similar to this (depending on which engine goes which way around, I know):
-----UP-(e)-DOWN--(body)--DOWN-(e)-UP-----
Nice and symmetric. Would there be any difference in flight if the torque was exactly reversed? I should think not?
But what (roughly) would be the effect of both engines rotating in the same direction? The forces ought to be like this:
-----UP-(e)-DOWN--(body)----UP-(e)-DOWN---
I would imagine it more or less being the same or even a little less than a single engine's torque effect? The center torque should cancel each other out. Would the torque be twice that of a single engine with the combined force of both? A fraction of one engines power? I can't quite find a straight answer to this via Google.
My main question is really "do I need to know this", but since I am incurably curious I guess I HAVE to know it nonetheless :)
Btw, the two guys talking about it didn't come to a consensus about the proper way to work out that three-engine plane's torque :)
Thanks Jenni