Rotor Tom,
I've been in the Infantry 16 years...I got thick skin so no worries about offending me. Google the GEN H4....the concept works, but the GEN H4, as well the airscooter are fixed pitch...not autorotation. But, that's not the reason for my efforts. It started out as something to do....much like crossword puzzles are to some folks. I need to have mechanical problem solving to occupy my mind. The angular differences between the retreating/advancing blades due to the swash plate cause loss in lift when maneuvering from a hover into lateral flight and result in the airframe dropping if not corrected.... as you already well know...power on ..power off etc.....cyclic,collective, throttle and pedal inputs.........I'm trying to cut the required amount of pilot input as well reduce maintenace cost.
DARPA took a look, said it had merit, but the payoff was not high enough for DOD..they said. Aside from this, I sketched up 3 different other designs and gave them to the Army as well the proprietary rights in an effort to get better UAS down to our level. It's just something to do. I've had a few aerospace engineers look it over...none of them gave it bad marks, but all that was said was it was "they're intrigued". I do not really care if someone says something negative about. It's all a paart of freelance R&D. That's all fine and well, but maybe it's a bit far into left field. The end state aside from what I've already mentioned is human machine interface, both mechanically and I hope in software form, but not the fake Sci-fi crap you see on TV. Prediction software that facilitates flight control inputs or corrects them should the pilot fall asleep. I know some form of this exists already, but I'm trying to push it even further. If you got an email, I'll shoot you a few PDFs on my thoughts as far as tempting physics and tap dancing in left field. paper with regard to UAS that was sent to the Army aviation folks, kinematics etc. You and your peers in the engineer world can critique them. Got a buddy at Purdue that looked them over and he said I'm headed in the right direction, but still in left field.
Regards,
Dave