T is for Teetering
Semantics, it was one of Windlifter's absolute favorite words. He loved the way it described the study of language, he loved how it encouraged his students to look deeper into the texts they were assigned…but he especially loved the way it rolled off of the tongues of the people around him when he found ways to twist words to his will. Semantics turned hailstones to snow, and an emergency into a once in a lifetime adventure.
Looking into the true meaning of words had been the reason that Windlifter had invested in his most expensive modification…teetering hinges. He technically didn't need them because his numerous rotor blades allowed his disk to compensate for the effects of dissymmetric lift, but the moment he had learned about teetering, Windlifter had wanted to do it.
It had taken Windlifter just over two decades to save enough money to undergo the procedure and he had never been happier when he woke up knowing that every time he flew from that moment forward he was going to be flapping his wings to do so.
Term – Teetering – A helicopter's rotor disk produce dissymmetric of lift. In order to combat the uneven lift produced by the rotor disk, a teetering hinge is added to the mast. This allows the helicopter's blades to 'flap'. Because a helicopter's rotor blades are literally the aircraft's wings, teetering hinges allow helicopters with this piece of equipment to flap their wings to fly. Teetering hinges are expensive to both install and maintain, so they are usually only found in aircraft with four or less blades but they can be added to helicopters with more blades to smooth out their ride.