Remembering the Rotodyne

[Halmyre]

Interesting article.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35521040

[Geneve]

There's a good film about the Fairy Rotordyne. I think they may show it at the Helicopter Museum at Weston. It was noisy.

Surely this is where we are today

[Scotty2]

There is a very good documentary on you tube. "Project Cancelled" In 4 parts.

Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyxj8soYqwQ


Would be ideal for oil rigs and city hops. They were working on silencers, but they also say it wasn't that loud for London Battersea.

Another project for my Euromillions win...After ordering a Zeppelin...

[FourWheelDrift]

The prototype might have been noisy 113 db but there were ways to make it quieter getting it down to 96 dB from 600 ft and even to just 95db at 200ft.

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1962/...

[megaphone]

Scotty2 said:

There is a very good documentary on you tube. "Project Cancelled" In 4 parts.

Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyxj8soYqwQ


Would be ideal for oil rigs and city hops. They were working on silencers, but they also say it wasn't that loud for London Battersea.

Another project for my Euromillions win...After ordering a Zeppelin...

Just watched that, very interesting, thank goodness someone decided to film it all!

[LHRFlightman]

FourWheelDrift said:

The prototype might have been noisy 113 db but there were ways to make it quieter getting it down to 96 dB from 600 ft and even to just 95db at 200ft.

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1962/...

Either of those db values would bust the noise limits at Heathrow. It was just to noisy for the environment it was designed to take-off and land from.

Unfortunately

[FourWheelDrift]

That was 1950-60s sound levels, I'm sure they could be made to be quieter today.

[Hooli]

You wouldn't hear it over the screaming NIMBYs anyway.

[EarlOfHazard]

Which license would you need to fly this thing? Fixed wing or helicopter? Or a special license?

[Geneve]

I would assume it's a specialist type rating, covered under the 'powered-lift' category.

[FourWheelDrift]

PPL(G) Gyrocopter licence?

http://www.gyrocopterexperience.com/faqs/97-do-you...

[anonymous-user]

FourWheelDrift said:

The prototype might have been noisy 113 db but there were ways to make it quieter getting it down to 96 dB from 600 ft and even to just 95db at 200ft.

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1962/...

Loving the total lack of ElfnSafety in that vid! People on step ladders next to 90 foot whirling rotorblades, or "sheltering" in what is almost certainly a garden shed on the airfield open air test rig, again with very large, very heavy and cut-your-head-off-in-the-blink-of-an-eye capable parts spinning above their heads! ;-)

[010101]

FourWheelDrift said:

PPL(G) Gyrocopter licence?

http://www.gyrocopterexperience.com/faqs/97-do-you...

Gyros don't have a vertical lift phase. The blades always act like wings when airborne, except they don't stall if you keep the power on and the stick back, you just descend slowly.
Check out the Agustawestland AW609. Ooooh. Aaaah.

Edited by 010101 on Friday 12th February 22:46

[AnotherClarkey]

010101 said:

Gyros don't have a vertical lift phase. The blades always act like wings when airborne, except they don't stall if you keep the power on and the stick back, you just descend slowly.

Edited by 010101 on Friday 12th February 22:46

Not quite 100% true:

https://youtu.be/ly261Dt1Of8

[010101]

He was using the pre-rotate, which is disconnected before take off, or else the torque effect of the blades being driven causes uncontrollable yaw.
Modern gyros still use pre-rotate to shorten the take off run, because without it the blades would take ages to speed up enough.

[010101]

It could have been a female pilot, I don't want to assume it was a man.

[AnotherClarkey]

010101 said:

He was using the pre-rotate, which is disconnected before take off, or else the torque effect of the blades being driven causes uncontrollable yaw.
Modern gyros still use pre-rotate to shorten the take off run, because without it the blades would take ages to speed up enough.

Yes indeed - but it was certainly a 'vertical lift phase', even if not a sustainable one.

[010101]

If he has no airpeed then he has no control. Notice his rapid forward acceleration after leaving the ground.
A crosswind would result in an accident. This is very different from powered vertical lift, as the rotordyne can perform. It would need collective pitch control of the rotor disc.

Edited by 010101 on Sunday 14th February 21:35

[AnotherClarkey]

010101 said:

If he has no airpeed then he has no control. Notice his rapid forward acceleration after leaving the ground.
This is very different from powered vertical lift, as the rotordyne can perform. It would need collective pitch control.

There would have been control - via cyclic and collective pitch. The rapid transition to forward flight would have been to get some upward airflow through the unpowered rotor and avoid plummeting to the ground.

[010101]

Gyros don't have collective pitch on the rotor disc.