Post amazingly cool pictures of aircraft (Volume 2)
Discussion
It's called a fenestron and was adopted by a few Aerosptiale helicopter designs. Off hand I can only think of the Gazelle and the Dauphine.
I expect they thought the rotor was better protected from tail strikes, wire strikes etc. Not sure why it wasn't adopted more widely - expect perhaps Aerospatiale (now Eurocopter) patented it and wanted too much money from others through licence fees.
I expect they thought the rotor was better protected from tail strikes, wire strikes etc. Not sure why it wasn't adopted more widely - expect perhaps Aerospatiale (now Eurocopter) patented it and wanted too much money from others through licence fees.
Ayahuasca said:
I wonder why the Gazelle’s tail rotor shaft is exposed like that? I believe at least one Gazelle crashed because the shaft failed when it was abraded by a bit of the fuselage.
Not sure why myself even having spent some time in Rotary. Early helicopters had lots of exposed bits trading off aero for weight. May have been a military thinking thing that the risk of interference with the shaft was no different and that at least exposed shafts could be visually inspected by the pilot (although the hanger bearings would be more exposed to contamination). Interestingly the OH-58 Kiowa also had an exposed TR drive shaft whereas its commercial cousin the 206 Jet Ranger had it faired in:
Eric, the question was about the shaft not the Fenestron.
Eric Mc said:
It's called a fenestron and was adopted by a few Aerosptiale helicopter designs. Off hand I can only think of the Gazelle and the Dauphine.
I expect they thought the rotor was better protected from tail strikes, wire strikes etc. Not sure why it wasn't adopted more widely - expect perhaps Aerospatiale (now Eurocopter) patented it and wanted too much money from others through licence fees.
I expect they thought the rotor was better protected from tail strikes, wire strikes etc. Not sure why it wasn't adopted more widely - expect perhaps Aerospatiale (now Eurocopter) patented it and wanted too much money from others through licence fees.
Pfft to only little helicopters having Fenestron tails, here's the mighty Puma!
Edited by Madness60 on Thursday 10th December 17:09
Speed 3 said:
Not sure why myself even having spent some time in Rotary. Early helicopters had lots of exposed bits trading off aero for weight. May have been a military thinking thing that the risk of interference with the shaft was no different and that at least exposed shafts could be visually inspected by the pilot (although the hanger bearings would be more exposed to contamination). Interestingly the OH-58 Kiowa also had an exposed TR drive shaft whereas its commercial cousin the 206 Jet Ranger had it faired in:
Eric, the question was about the shaft not the Fenestron.
Just realised - Must read more carefully.Eric, the question was about the shaft not the Fenestron.
As someone has already mentioned - weight. Early helicopters tended to be underpowered so anywhere weight could be saved, it was.
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