aerei curiosi

[Blue Sky]

Bensen B-8 Gyro-Glider

1956

 

 

The Gyro-Glider is a simple unpowered rotor-kite which can be towed behind even a small motor car. It is available as either a completed aircraft or kit of parts for amateur construction. Alternatively, would-be constructors can purchase a set of plans, with building and flying instructions. No pilot's licence is required to fly it in the United States and many hundreds of kits and plans have been sold. Application has been made for an Approved Type Certificate.

The original Model B-7 Gyro-Glider was described in the 1958-59 edition of this work. It has been followed by the Model B-8, which is offered as either a single-seater or two-seater, the latter version being suitable for use as a pilot trainer.

The Model B-8 consists basically of an inverted square-section tubular aluminium T-frame structure, of which the forward arm supports the lightweight seat, towing arm, rudder bar and landing gear nose-wheel. The rear arm supports a large stabilising fin and rudder, with the main landing gear wheels carried on a tubular axle near the junction of the T-frame. The free-turning two-bladed rotor is universally-mounted at the top of the T-frame and is operated directly by a hanging-stick control. It is claimed that the entire aircraft can be made from commercial tubing, wood and locally-available materials. (www.aviastar.org)

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Fauvel AV36

[Blue Sky]

Bensen "Midget"

1953

 

 

This miniature single-seater helicopter, designed as a private venture mainly for use in the United States Navy, has been simplified to such a degree that its components can be reassembled with hand tools. At each dp of the two-bladed rotor is a ram-jet engine, weighing a mere 2.5 kilos and running on either ordinary petrol or fuel oil.

The "Midget" is reported to be able to lift four times its own weight. The initial tests were carried out in 1954.

Technical data for "Midget"

Number of seats: 1, engines: 2 x ram-jets equivalent to 40hp, rotor diameter: 4.57m, weight fully loaded: 227kg, empty weight: 45kg, cruising speed: 120km/h

 

www.aviastar.org

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Eich JE2

[Blue Sky]

Bensen B-12 "Sky-Way" 1961

 

 

Manned, somewhat precariously, research vehicle for possible agricultural operations. Aluminum framework with 10 McCulloch M75 two-cycle engines and 2.1m rotors; first flown 2 November 1961. Hovered at 6m, flew sideways and backwards with success. (Aviastar)

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Goupy 1-bis

[Blue Sky]

Bensen B-8 Gyro-Boat

1956

 

 

The Gyro-Boat is a further variant of the Gyro-Glider, in which the basic free-turning rotor system, known as the Roto-sail, is mounted on any standard small dinghy. The result is literally a flying boat, intended to be towed above water by a motor boat.

The two-blade steel and plywood rotor has a diameter of 6.10m and disc area of 29.2m2. Each blade has an area of 1.0m2. When fitted to a 3.66m aluminium dinghy weighing 45kg, the complete Gyro-boat has an empty weight of 68kg and a loaded weight of 147kg carrying one person or 227kg carrying two people.

It takes off when towed at a forward speed of 37km/h, cruises at 55-110km/h and lands at 11km/h.

The prototype Gyro-Boat flew for the first time on April 25, 1956, and the first production model on July 8, 1956. The 1959 version can be fitted with stabilizing pontoons on outriggers for rough water operation. (Aviastar)

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Esnault-Pelterie REP2

[Blue Sky]

Isacco I-4 Helicogyr

1935

 

 

Vittorio Isacco was Italian designer who worked on a helicopter in USSR 1932-1936. In 1936 he was arrested and worked in a Special KB possibly at GAZ-39.

I-4, also called Isacco-4 and Gyelikogyr, this unusual helicopter was only Isacco design actually to be completed. Fuselage of KhMA welded steel tube with fabric covering. Tail, pilot-operated vertical and horizontal surfaces of light alloy, fabric covering. Tailskid and wide-track fixed main wheel. Cabin amidships for pilot and five passengers. On nose, main propulsion engine. Four-blade lifting rotor, each blade having constant profile with light-alloy ribs (welded from 12x10mm elliptical tubing) located at intervals along light-alloy box spar with two main webs and upper/lower booms, fabric covering overall. Blades supported at rest by bracing ties from central cabane pyramid. Pilot controls to ailerons on pairs of arms behind outer trailing edge for cyclic/collective pitch control. Rotor driven by separate engines on tip of each blade. I-4 began late 32 and built at ZOK NII GVF. Prof. B.N.Yuriev acted as consultant. Designer’s calculations found unreliable, delaying completion until 1935. Ground tests in that year caused deformed dural trunnion on engine, remanufactured in steel, but went on to discover severe blade flutter resulting in departure of one of tip engines and severe straining of whole machine. Never flew, and final conclusion was that tip-mounted engine idea was not practical. Aviastar

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General Aviation O27

[Blue Sky]

General Aviation O27

 

???

Bell Model 30

1942

 

 

Experimental single-seat helicopter with open frame fuselage structure (later enclosed), pilot seat in nose, three-leg tailwheel u/c and 160hp Franklin engine mounted in centre section driving tail rotor and 2-blade wooden main rotor with transverse stabilising bar. Prot. NX41867 FF 29 Dec. 1942 subsequently rebuilt with monocoque fuselage. Second prot. NX41868 with two seats and enclosed cabin. Third prot. NX41860 with open cockpit and revised tailboom structure.

www.aviastar.org

 

 

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Bell Model 30

1942

 

?????

 

 

 

Gee Bee R2 Super Sportster

[Blue Sky]

Già postato!

 

Hiller flying cranes

project

 

 

In 1949 the company built and tested the Hiller Powerblade, the world's first hot-cycle pressure-jet rotor. Hot exhaust gases ducted through various Powerblades produced greater efficiency, which was further boosted by the use of "tip burning", a term describing the combustion of fuel at the blade's exhaust nozzle. However, even this arrangement yielded substantially less propulsive efficiency than was obtainable by mounting jet engines right at the rotor blade tips. In 1950, therefore, Hiller abandoned the pressure-jet approach to tip propulsion and dedicated his company to experimentation with tip-mounted engines.

Over the next fifteen years, Hiller actively pursued the construction of tip-powered flying cranes with a variety of jet engines at their blade tips. In 1951, the company offered the Army a midsize flying crane called the "Aerial Carryall" or "Flying Truck". It also responded to a Navy request for an aerial-resupply helicopter with the huge "Class HC Heavy Lifter", a collapsible flying crane of tubular construction. Neither of these efforts reached the prototype stage.

The Army requested a design study for a flying crane with a 60m rotor in the mid-1950s. Hiller's response was BARC, an acronym for Besson's Aerial Railhead Crane. Named for Major General Frank S. Besson, chief of the Army Transportation Corps, this proposal similarly failed to find support. Neither did a series of parametric studies for a variety of tip-engined flying cranes that Hiller prepared in response to a 1955 military request.

By decade's end, it appeared that Hiller's continuing tip-propulsion efforts might at last pay off. Prompted by this promising body of exhaustive research, including thousands of hours of tip-powered rotor testing on Hiller whirlstands, the Army solicited industry bids for a tip-turbine-powered flying crane in the Hiller mold. Clearly favored to win a contract, Hiller teamed with Continental, manufacturer of the J69 turbojet engine. Although the Hiller-Continental team won the initial contract, funding for this Army program was cut in the early 1960s before a prototype was produced.

Company hopes for giant tip-powered helicopters revived briefly in 1965 when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration considered sponsoring a Hiller flying crane to recover Saturn V moon booster first stages during Project Apollo. Aerial recovery of this spent first stage, which weighed up to 400 tons, dictated that the Hiller/NASA recovery vehicle be the largest aircraft of any kind yet proposed. The resulting design featured a gross weight of about a 450t and a rotor more than 100m in diameter. Powered by two or more jet engines per blade, this rotor would have turned at 60 rpm, presenting the illusion of slow motion to observers below.

As laid out, the Hiller/NASA flying crane would loiter at 3000m some 750km downrange from Cape Kennedy. Sighting the moon booster descending by parachute, it would use special recovery gear to snag the spent rocket and winch it securely in. If the first pass was unsuccessful, sufficient time would remain for two more attempts before the booster was too near the ocean's surface for another try.

Expensive as such a helicopter would have been, the huge aircraft would have paid for itself with the first several recoveries. But long-range planning for the nation's space program was beginning to favor the concept of a reusable space shuttle over single-use rockets, and this recovery helicopter was not funded.

Although Hiller never realized the long-held dream of flying crane production for want of government sponsorship, this program did have conspicuous successes. The comprehensive body of research it generated has paved the way for such helicopters to be built in the future, eliminating every real or imagined obstacle to their construction. This program also fostered the development of two generations of the Hiller HJ-1 "Hornet", mentioned above.

 

Aviastar

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Non so se già postato, comunque uno dei tanti prototipi di caccia VTOL degli anni 50 e 60.

 

 

Entwicklungsring Sud VJ101C

[Blue Sky]

Non so se già postato, comunque uno dei tanti prototipi di caccia VTOL degli anni 50 e 60.

 

Già postato da me!

 

L'uno dei tanti prototipi è il:

EWR Sùd VJ 1O1C: 10 aprile 1963

La Bòlkow, la Heinket e la Messerschmitt si unirono nel 1958 per produrre un intercettore VTOL da Mach 2 La Heinkel usci dal gruppo progettativo, lasciando le

altre due a continuare lo sviluppo del progetto come Entwicklungsring Sùd GmbH. L’aereo risultante fu il VJ-101C potenziato da sei motori Rolls-Royce RB 145. Due erano installati nella parte anteriore della fusoliera ai soli fini portanti, mentre gli altri quattro erano installati in gondole alari basculanti per il volo sia verticale sia orizzontale. Il primo prototipo del VJ101C, che volò il 10 aprile 1963, raggiunse parecchie volle velocità supersoniche prima di andare perduto in un incidente nel settembre 1964. Il secondo prototipo aveva motori con postbruciatori nelle gondole alari e volò solo per alcuni mesi nel 1965.

 

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English Electric Wren

[Blue Sky]

English Electric Wren

 

 

Convertawings Model A

1956

 

 

Convertawings has revived the concept tried out in 1922 in France by Oemichen, lift for whose helicopter was provided by four rotors, and by G. de Bothezat in the United States, with a double side-by-side arrangement of four rotors embodied in the first helicopter ordered by the United States Army, which flew in 1923.

[Ospite intruder]

Tirati su il morale, questo è quasi normale (non capisco come gli sia venuta l'idea di montare il motore in quella maniera, ma è un altro discorso):

 

Equator P300

[Blue Sky]

Equator P300

 

Non è tanto male!

 

Allora dimmi come hanno potuto pensare di montare i motori in QUESTO modo!

 

 

Filper Beta 200

1966

 

 

 

 

 

Under the direction of William Orr, Filper Research designed a novel helicopter using the 'Gyroflex Rotor', which employed special balance weights fitted to the roots of the rotor blades instead of conventional flapping or lead-lag hinges, or other hub stability devices. This concept was tested on the Filper Helicopter (N9712C) which had fore and aft rotor pylons and the pilot sitting astride a central beam which also carried the engine. The commercial development, however, was the Filper Beta 100A. This was a tandem rotor machine with a two-seat cabin and pylon at the rear, and the engine with the forward pylon in front. This curious arranagment resulted in the pilot being unusually far from the front of the helicopter. The Beta 200 prototype (N5000F) was first flown on 26 May 1966. Filper planned several versions of the Beta with either two seats (Model 200A and 300) or four seats (Model 400A and 600A). The four-seat models had a fuselage which was stretched by 36-inches and the first Beta 400A (N5003F) was flown on 13 July 1967. The Beta models had various powerplants - namely the 210hp Continental IO-360-E (Model 200A), Allison 250-C18 turbine (Model 300) and 250hp Continental IO-520 (400A). Details of the Model 600A are unknown. Registration records show that 32 Betas were completed, comprising two Model 100As, 29 Model 400As and one Model 600A, but there is some doubt as to whether all of these were completed. It is believed the company ceased operations in 1969.

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Allora dimmi come hanno potuto pensare di montare i motori in QUESTO modo!

 

 

Mi avvalgo della facoltà di non rispondere.

 

 

 

Ghnome

[Blue Sky]

Kellett KH-15 "Stable Mable"

1954

 

 

This variable stability helicopter was a flying test-bed developed with the Office of Naval Research as sponsor to study the behaviour of a small helicopter in which the significant parameters of the rotor could be altered.

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Falconar 121 Teal

[Blue Sky]

Gluhareff MEG-1X

1956

 

 

Eugene Gluhareff established a development company in 1952 to carry out research into pressure-jet powered light helicopters. He built the MEG-1X personal strap-on helicopter rig which used a single-blade rotor with a tip-mounted G8-2 engine and followed this with the MEG-2X which had a two-blade rotor. His final design was the MEG-3X which was based on a dish-shaped platform on which the pilot would stand and a two-blade rotor revolving underneath the platform. No commercial development was undertaken.

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Questo si accontenta di essere brutto: General Aircraft ST12 Monospar

[Blue Sky]

Gluhareff MEG-2X

1960

 

 

Eugene Gluhareff established a development company in 1952 to carry out research into pressure-jet powered light helicopters. He built the MEG-1X personal strap-on helicopter rig which used a single-blade rotor with a tip-mounted G8-2 engine and followed this with the MEG-2X which had a two-blade rotor. His final design was the MEG-3X which was based on a dish-shaped platform on which the pilot would stand and a two-blade rotor revolving underneath the platform. No commercial development was undertaken.