Gyrocopter Speed Record foiled by CAA

[henrycrun]

Ken Wallis to go abroad for speed attempt - http://www.metro.co.uk/news/830395-gyro-copter-spe...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Wallis

[Eric Mc]

Standards of journalism are appalling these days -

Ken Wallis, 94, MAY have to travel abroad for the stunt as Civil Aviation Authority rules in Britain limit his rotorcraft to just 70mph.

The former James Bond stuntman is hoping to reach speeds of 140mph in his hand-built twin-propeller machine.

Mr Wallis, an MBE, said he may have travel to France or the US.

He keeps 20 autogyros in a mini hangar at his home in Norfolk.

Mr Wallis said: ‘They are one of the safest machines to fly because, if the engine stops, the rotors keep turning and you can land.’

One of Mr Wallis’s most exciting experiences was flying a GYROSCOPE in a stunt for Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice.

‘I had to do 81 flights and was in the air for more than 44 hours – and don’t even get a mention in the credits,’ he said.

Gyroscope





Gyrocopter

Edited by Eric Mc on Friday 18th June 14:07

[dilbert]

There goes a man who knows what we're up against.
Ken, that is. Not Eric.

[TEKNOPUG]

Eric Mc said:

Mr Wallis said: ‘They are one of the safest machines to fly because, if the engine stops, the rotors keep turning and you can land.’

Eh? How and what?

[chrisj_abz]

TEKNOPUG said:

Eric Mc said:

Mr Wallis said: ‘They are one of the safest machines to fly because, if the engine stops, the rotors keep turning and you can land.’

Eh? How and what?

On a gyrocopter the main rotor is only powered by the air passing over it, its gets its forward motion by the propeller.

[TEKNOPUG]

chrisj_abz said:

TEKNOPUG said:

Eric Mc said:

Mr Wallis said: ‘They are one of the safest machines to fly because, if the engine stops, the rotors keep turning and you can land.’

Eh? How and what?

On a gyrocopter the main rotor is only powered by the air passing over it, its gets its forward motion by the propeller.

So when the engine stop, so does the propeller and then the air stops passing over the main rotor and it stops? Or is he saying that you'll always have enough time to reach the ground safely before this happens?

[Simpo Two]

A rotor once spinning has enough momentum to keep spinning even if the power stops driving it - and thus you 'glide' down to a safe landing, in theory.

Fixed wing aircraft glide and helicopters autorotate - all the same kind of thing. Newton wins, but after a controllable delay.

[andy_s]

He's definitely top mad in the top trumps mad pack.

[tegwin]

hmm.... not quite...

If the propulsion engine fails, the gurocopter will begin to descend ... as the aircraft drops the air comming up from below keeps the rotor spinning.... The spinning disk continues to give you lift... a bit like an aircraft wing...

When you get close to the ground and need to slow down... the kinetic energy stored in the rotating rotor mast can be used to give extra lift to cussion the landing...

In an R-22 light helicopter with the engine off you would expect to glide very roughly 1 mile for every 1000 feet
of altitude
You can even climb slightly with the engine off... but this sacrifices rotor speed which then results in a faster decent...

Obviously you can lengthen or shorten the glide angle etc...

Edited by tegwin on Friday 18th June 15:24

[williamp]

Hmmm. Remind me to contact the press:

I want to set an official record between London and Edinburgh on the UK roads. I have the car, I have the crash helmet. However my speed record attempt has been foiled by the Police...

[eharding]

andy_s said:

He's definitely top mad in the top trumps mad pack.

Madder than a box of frogs on acid. Smashing old boy though.

He came to Waltham a couple of years ago to give a talk. He's always been a petrolhead, starting building racing cars and boats when he was a lad before the war. After the outbreak of hostilities, he blagged his way into the RAF as a bomber pilot despite being practically blind in one eye, on one occasion he and the rest of the crew jumped over the side at night after his destination and all of his diversion fields became fogged in, and on another had a wing all but sawn off by a barrage-balloon cable. Eventually the medics caught up with him, and he was transferred to a ground job testing the effects of weapons on airframes - machine-gunning the daylights out of knackered old bits of discarded kit. Towards the end of the war, he ran out of target wings, so he sent off a request to the Ministry for fresh supplies....they responded by delivering a couple of dozen, brand, spanking new Spitfires now deemed surplus to requirements, which he then proceeded to explosively disassemble in various amusing ways...brand, spanking, new Spitfires. Pants.

[Eric Mc]

He would have been a natural for Top Gear.

[hman]

He has managed to prang one of his autogyros though -at an airshow I believe.


I hope I'm like him if I ever reach 94 .

Legendary.

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

hman said:

He has managed to prang one of his auto-gyros though - at an airshow I believe.

He had a prang at Swanton-Morley in 2006 doing a flypast for the Army. IIRC it was low level wind shear.

The airshow crash you are probably thinking of was the infamous incident at Farnborough in September 1970. The display pilot was the Beagle Aircraft company test pilot, Mr J W C Judge. He was a fixed wing pilot with little rotary experience (a mere 20 hrs on auto-gyros). Having got the nose too high as a result of the aircraft pitching up following a high speed pass, instead of using a wingover, he bunted - the main rotor chopped through the empenage causing the a/c to crash and the death of the pilot.

[Amused2death]

hman said:

He has managed to prang one of his autogyros though -at an airshow I believe.


I hope I'm like him if I ever reach 94 .

Legendary.

Could you mean this clip?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KmuzvGFsYw

There is a slightly longer version around somewhere, which mentions and shows that it is Ken Wallis. He climbed out of the wreckage and waved to the crowd.

A true eccentric brit....we need more like him

[Simpo Two]

tegwin said:

If the propulsion engine fails, the gurocopter will begin to descend ... as the aircraft drops the air comming up from below keeps the rotor spinning.... The spinning disk continues to give you lift... a bit like an aircraft wing...

See what you mean. So essentially you have to go down to get the energy to go up - yes, that makes sense!

[Mr Dave]

Was in Newtownards, County Down. Where Im from (my house is about 400 yards from the airfield.

Im sure I saw that but cant really remember as I was only 7 or so.

[dilbert]

hman said:

He has managed to prang one of his autogyros though -at an airshow I believe.


I hope I'm like him if I ever reach 94 .

Legendary.

For that to happen, I think you have to start out like this;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mjUZEsduIE&NR=...

[hman]

Amused2death said:

hman said:

He has managed to prang one of his autogyros though -at an airshow I believe.


I hope I'm like him if I ever reach 94 .

Legendary.

Could you mean this clip?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KmuzvGFsYw

There is a slightly longer version around somewhere, which mentions and shows that it is Ken Wallis. He climbed out of the wreckage and waved to the crowd.

A true eccentric brit....we need more like him

Thats the one!

I so want an autogyro.