The shift to autorotation is perilous, though, because it involves a reversal of the airflow through the blades.

ECONOMIST: Monitor

In the helicopter he was flying, the pilot must transition to autorotation in two seconds to avoid a crash.

CNN: Pilot texting a factor in deadly copter crash

The NTSB said other factors leading to the crash included the pilot's inability to perform a crucial flight maneuver known as autorotation after he ran out of fuel.

CNN: Pilot texting a factor in deadly copter crash

The investigation found that the autorotation training the pilot received was not representative of an actual engine failure at cruise speed, which likely contributed to his failure to successfully execute the maneuver.

CNN: Pilot texting a factor in deadly copter crash

The pilot must then change the pitch of his craft to let it enter a mode called autorotation, in which the rush of air as it descends keeps the blades whirling, thus providing lift that slows the fall.

ECONOMIST: Monitor

Autorotation is changing in iOS 6.

ENGADGET: Apple seeds iOS 6 beta 4 to developers: here's the changelog

For compatibility, view controllers that still implement the shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation: method do not get the new autorotation behaviors. (In other words, they do not fall back to using the app, app delegate, or Info.plist file to determine the supported orientations.) Instead, the shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation: method is used to synthesize the information that would be returned by thesupportedInterfaceOrientations method.

ENGADGET: Apple seeds iOS 6 beta 4 to developers: here's the changelog