(Fairey) Rotodyne @·AIRCRAFTUBE

  • Fairey Rotodyne Fairey Rotodyne
    Fairey Rotodyne
  • Fairey Rotodyne Fairey Rotodyne
    Fairey Rotodyne
  • Fairey Rotodyne Fairey Rotodyne
    Fairey Rotodyne
  • Rotodyne prototype Rotodyne prototype
    Rotodyne prototype
  • Rotodyne prototype Rotodyne prototype
    Rotodyne prototype
  • Rotodyne prototype Rotodyne prototype
    Rotodyne prototype
  • Fairey Rotodyne Fairey Rotodyne
    Fairey Rotodyne
  • Rotodyne prototype Rotodyne prototype
    Rotodyne prototype
  • Rotodyne - 1959 Rotodyne - 1959
    Rotodyne - 1959
  • Fairey Rotodyne Fairey Rotodyne
    Fairey Rotodyne
  • Fairey Rotodyne Fairey Rotodyne
    Fairey Rotodyne
  • Fairey Rotodyne Fairey Rotodyne
    Fairey Rotodyne
  • Fairey Rotodyne Fairey Rotodyne
    Fairey Rotodyne
  • Fairey Rotodyne Fairey Rotodyne
    Fairey Rotodyne

Fairey Rotodyne

The Fairey Rotodyne was a British compound autogyro intended for commercial and military applications in the 1950s and early 1960s. A development of the earlier Fairey Gyrodyne prototypes which had established a number of British helicopter records, the Rotodyne featured a jet-tipped powered rotor burning fuel with compressed air bled from two wingtip mounted Napier Eland turboprops. The rotor was used for vertical takeoffs, landings and hovering, while full power was applied to the tractor propellers of the turbo props when engaged in forward flight. Although promising in concept and entirely successful in trials, the Rotodyne program was eventually cancelled when a combination of politics and the lack of commercial orders doomed the project.
Fairey had developed the Fairey FB-1 Gyrodyne, a unique aircraft in its own right that defined a third type of rotorcraft, including autogyro and helicopter. Having little in common with the later Rotodyne, it was characterised by its inventors, Dr. J.A.J. Bennett, formerly of the Cierva Autogiro Company and A.G. Forsyth, as an intermediate aircraft designed to combine the safety and simplicity of the autogyro with hovering performance. Its rotor was driven in all phases of flight with collective pitch being an automatic function of shaft torque, with a side-mounted propeller providing both thrust for forward flight and rotor torque correction. The FB-1 set a world airspeed record in 1948, but a fatal accident due to poor machining of a rotor blade flapping link terminated development of the pure gyrodyne. The second FB-1 was modified to investigate a tip-jet driven rotor with propulsion provided by propellers mounted at the tip of each stub wing - this became known as the Jet Gyrodyne, which despite its name, was a compound autogyro.

Fairey put forward their various designs for the proposed BEA Bus, which were revised over the years, and received government funding. However getting access to engines proved to be difficult with first Rolls Royce then Armstrong Siddeley claiming lack of resources. The Ministry of Supply contracted in 1953 for the building of the prototype (serial XE521).

The Rotodyne had a large, four-blade rotor and two Napier Eland N.E.L.3 turboprops, one mounted under each of the fixed wings. For takeoff and landing, the rotor was driven by tip-jets, powered by compressors driven through a clutch by the main engines, and the compressed air produced was mixed with fuel and burned. As a torqueless rotor system, no anti-torque correction system was required, though the propeller pitch was controlled by the rudder pedals for low speed yaw control. The propellers provided thrust for translational flight while the rotor autorotated. The cockpit controls included a cyclic and collective pitch lever, as in a conventional helicopter.

While the prototype was being built, funding for the program reached a crisis. Cuts in defence spending led the Ministry of Defence to withdraw support, pushing the burden of the costs onto any possible civilian customer. The Government agreed to continued funding only if, among other qualifications, Fairey and Napier (through their parent English Electric) contributed to development costs of the Rotodyne and the Eland engine respectively.

Testing and evaluation

Although J.A.J. Bennett had left Fairey to join Hiller Helicopters in California, the prototype, its development assumed by Dr. George S. Hislop, made its first flight on 6 November 1957piloted by Chief Helicopter Test Pilot Squadron Leader W. Ron Gellatly and Assistant Chief Helicopter Test Pilot Lt. Cmdr. John G.P. Morton as Second Pilot.

The first successful transition from vertical to horizontal and back to vertical flight was achieved on 10 April 1958. The Rotodyne performed to expectations and set a world speed record in the convertiplane category, at 191 mph (or 307 km/h) on 5 January 1959, over a 100 km closed circuit. As well as being fast, the craft had a safety feature: it could hover with one engine shut down with its propeller feathered, and the prototype demonstrated several landings as an autogyro. The prototype was demonstrated several times at the Farnborough and Paris air shows, regularly amazing onlookers. The Rotodyne's tip drive and unloaded rotor made its performance far better when compared to pure helicopters and other forms of "convertiplanes." The aircraft could be flown at 175 knots (or 324 km/h) and pulled into a steep climbing turn without demonstrating any adverse handling characteristics.

Throughout the world, interest was growing in the prospect of direct city-to-city transport. The market for the Rotodyne was that of a medium-haul "flying bus": it would take off vertically from an inner-city heliport, with all lift coming from the tip-jet driven rotor, and then would increase airspeed, eventually with all power from the engines being transferred to the propellors with the rotor autorotating. In this mode, the collective pitch, and hence drag, of the rotor could be reduced, as the wings would be taking as much as half of the craft's weight. The Rotodyne would then cruise at speeds of about 150 knots to another city (e.g. London to Paris) where the rotor tip-jet system would be restarted for landing vertically in the city centre. When the Rotodyne landed and the rotor stopped moving, its blades drooped downward from the hub. To avoid striking the vertical stabilizers on start-up, the tips of these fins were angled down to the horizontal. They were raised once the rotor had spun up.

British European Airways announced that it was interested in the purchase of six aircraft, with a possibility of up to 20. The Royal Air Force ordered 12 military transport versions. New York Airways signed a letter of intent for the purchase of five with an option on more albeit with qualifications. The U.S. Army was interested in buying 200 of the Type Y Rotodyne to be manufactured by Fairey's US licensee, Kaman Helicopters in Bloomfield, CT. Government funding was secured again on the proviso that firm orders would be gained from BEA. The civilian orders were dependent on the noise issues being satisfactorily met.

Cancellation

In 1959, the British Government, seeking to cut costs, decreed that the number of aircraft firms be lowered and set forth their expectations for mergers in airframe and aero-engine companies. By delaying or withholding access to defence contracts the British firms could be manoeuvred into mergers. Fairey Aviation, then the helicopter division of Bristol, and Saunders-Roe were incorporated with Westland. The larger Rotodyne design could be developed to take from 57 to 75 passengers which with the Rolls-Royce Tyne turboprops (5,250 shp) would have a cruising speed of 370 km/h. It would be able to carry nearly 7 tonnes of freight and British Army vehicles would fit into its fuselage. Government funding of some £5 million was promised. The expected order from the RAF did not appear - they had no particular interest in the design with the issue of nuclear deterrence to the fore at the time. The Tyne engines were starting to appear underpowered for the larger design. Rolls Royce were told that they would have to fund the engine development itself.

However the end came when the interest shown by BEA did not provide an order and a request for an order by the military was turned down. The funding for the Rotodyne was cut in early 1962. The corporate management at Westland decided that further Rotodyne development towards production status was not worth the investment required. After the program was terminated, the Rotodyne, which was, after all, government property, was dismantled and largely destroyed in the same way as the Bristol Brabazon.

Analysis

The one great criticism of the Rotodyne was the noise the tip jets made, however, the jets were only run at full power for a matter of minutes during departure and landing and indeed, the test pilot Ron Gelattly made two flights over central London, and several landings and departures at Battersea Heliport with no complaints being registered. There was also a noise-reduction program in process which had managed to get the noise level down to the desired level of 96 dB from 600 feet (180 m) away, less than the noise made by a London Underground train, and at the time of cancellation, silencers were in the pipeline which would have reduced the noise even farther. In the end though it was funding and not noise that killed the Rotodyne

It is only relatively recently that interest has been re-established in direct city-to-city transport, with aircraft such as the Bell/Augusta BA609 and the Carter Copter. Groen Brothers Aviation are developing techniques for converting proven aeroplane designs into gyrodynes.

— — — = = — — —

This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Fairey Rotodyne of Wikipedia ( authors )

Specifications (Rotodyne "Y")

  • Crew : 3.
  • Capacity : 40 passengers.
  • Length : 58 ft 8 in (or 17.9 m).
  • Height : 22 ft 2 in (or 6.76 m).
  • Rotor diameter : 90 ft (or 27.4 m).
  • Disc area : 6,360 ft² (or 591 m²).
  • Disc loading : 5.2 lb/ft² (or 25 kg/m²).
  • Loaded weight : 33,000 lb (or 15,000 kg).
  • Max takeoff weight : 38,000 lb (or 17,000 kg).
  • Maximum speed : 213 mph (or 343 km/h).
  • Range : 520 mi (or 830 km).
  • Powerplant : Four rotor tip jet burning compressed air/fuel and two Napier Eland turboprops.
  • Power : 2,800 hp (or 2,100 kW) each.
  • Power/mass (prop) : 0.17 hp/lb (or 280 W/kg).

— — — = = — — —

This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Fairey Rotodyne of Wikipedia ( authors )
Fairey Rotodyne : Your comments on this subject
Powered by Disqus
Top
Legal Credits FAQ Help Site Map

Terms of use for the services available on this site

By using this Website, Users agree to the following terms of use and rules :

Definitions

  • Webmaster : Head Administrator with all authority over the management and development of the Website.
  • Administrator : Anyone that was given by the Webmaster full or partial access to the Website's structure or with moderation rights on messages posted by Users.
  • User or Visitor : Any person visiting the Website pages.
  • Website : The following provisions apply to a single Website accessible via the www.aircraftube.com, www.aircraftube.org, www.aircraftube.net and www.all-aircraft.com. URL's
  • Service : All free informations and tools contained on the Website.
  • Comments : All text written by users on Blogs and comment pages available on the Website.
  • Media : All media available on or through the Website. One must distinguish the local media (photos, curves, drawings) and the external media (videos) which the Website refers.

    • Purpose of this site

    The purpose of this non-commercial site is purely educational. Reflecting a passion, it is also there to preserve the memory of all those who gave their lives, their health or energy in the name of freedom, aviation safety or simply our passenger comfort.

    Copyright

    Some media may have escaped the vigilance of Administrators with regard to copyrights. If a user reports copyright infringement, he will be asked to prove that he is indeed the rights's owner for the concerned media. If so, his decision on the Administrator's next action will be respected: A total suppression of the Media on the Website, or the addition of some owner's reference. The publication of a media on the internet normally having as a goal to make it visible to many people, the Administrators expect in any case that the second option will be most often chosen.

    Pursuant to the Law on copyright and related rights, the user has the right to download and reproduce information on the Website for personal use and provided that the source is mentionned. They cannot however be used for commercial or advertising purposes.

    Using Blogs and filing comments

  • Moderator : The Administrator reserves the right to prevent the publication of comments that are not directly related to the Service without providing any explanation. Similarly, all insults, out of scope or unethical material will be banned.
  • Identification : Persons wishing to post a comment or use any form of contact are required to provide identification by the means of a valid e-mail address.
  • Responsibilities : Comments are posted on the Website under the unique responsability of their authors and the Administrators may in no case be liable for any statements or claims that the users might have issued.

    • As the comment system is hosted and maintained on servers external to the Website, the Administrators may in no circumstances be held responsible for the use that administrators of these servers or other third parties may have with those comments or filed data.

    Content Liability

    The Administrators carefully check the reliability of the sources used. They cannot, however, guarantee the accuracy of any information contained on the Website, partly because of the multiple sources from which they come.

    JavaScript and cookies - Storing information

    This Website imperatively uses JavaScript and cookies to function properly. Neither of these technologies, or other means shall in no case be used on the Website for the retention or disclosure of personal information about Visitors. Exceptions to this rule will involve storing the Users banned for inappropriate comments they might have given as well as contact information for Users wishing to subscribe to future newsletters.

    When a user accesses the Website, the corresponding servers may automatically collect certain data, such as IP address, date and time of Website access, viewed pages and the type of browser used. This information is kept only for the purpose of measuring the number of visitors to the different sections of the site and make improvements.

    Donations - Advertising

    To continue providing the Service for free, the Webmaster reserves the right to insert advertising or promotional messages on any page of the Site. In the same idea, any donations will only by used to cover the running costs of the site, such as hosting, connection fees, hardware and software necessary for the development and maintenance of the Website.

    Links and other websites

    Administrators shall in no case be liable for the non-availability of websites operated by third parties to which users would access through the Website.

    Administrators assume no liability for any content, advertising, products and/or services available on such third party websites. It is reminded that those sites are governed by their own terms of use.

    Placing a link to third party sites or authorize a third party to include a link on their website refering to this Website does not mean that the Administrators recommend in any way the products or services offered by these websites.

    Modifications

    The Webmaster reserves the right to modify at any time without notification the present terms of use as well as all content or specific functionality that the Website offers.

    The modified terms and conditions immediately apply to the using Visitor when changes come online. Visitors are invited to consult the site regularly on the most current version of the terms and conditions

    Governing Law and Jurisdiction

    These general conditions are governed by Belgian law.

    In case of dispute regarding the interpretation and/or execution of the above terms, the parties agree that the courts of the district of Nivelles, Belgium shall have exclusive jurisdiction power.

    Credits page

    Wikipedia.org

    Wikipedia is a collaboratively edited, multilingual, free Internet encyclopedia.

    Youtube

    YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, view and share videos.

    Special thanks to all Youtube quality aviation vids providers, specially (Those I forgot, please excuse me or report) :

    Airboyd
    Andys Video
    Aviation videos archives
    Bomberguy
    Classic Aviation TV
    Historical Aviation Film Unit
    Horsemoney
    Jaglavaksoldier
    Joluqa Malta
    Just Planes
    Koksy
    Classic Airliners & Vintage Pop Culture
    Memorial Flight
    Octane130
    Okrajoe
    SDASM archives
    Spottydog4477
    The Aviators TV
    Valentin Izagirre Bengoetxea
    Vexed123
    VonBerlich
    Zenos Warbirds

    Bundesarchiv

    The German Federal Archives or Bundesarchiv are the National Archives of Germany.

    FAQ

    I don't see my comments any more!

    Please note that each page has it's own comment entry. So, if you enter a comment i.e. on the B-747, you will only see it on that related page.

    General comments are accessed via the "BLOG En" button.

    Comments are moderated, so please allow some delay before they appear, specially if you are outside Europe.

    Menus are developing below the page, because they are too long!

    But they remain accessible, for example by scrolling the mouse wheel, or with your finger (on the menu) on a smartphone or tablet.

    I see adds on all videos.

    Use a good free add remover software.

    The site is loading random pages at startup.

    We think it is a good way to bring back the memory of aircraft, persons or events sometimes quite forgotten.

    HELP PAGE

    Why this site?

    Discovery

    This website is dedicated to one's aeronautical passion (which I hope we share) and was realised mainly as an educationnal tool. Knowing that, you'll notice that each new visit brings random topics for the purpose of making new discoveries, some achievements or characters certainly not deserving the oblivion into which they have sometimes fallen.

    By these pages, we also want to pay tribute to all those who gave at one time or another, their lives or health in the name of freedom, aeronautical security or simply our comfort.

    Centralisation

    Internet is full of websites dedicated to aviation, but most are dedicated to subjects or periods that are very limited in space or time. The purpose of this site is to be as general as possible and thus treats all events as well as characters of all stripes and times while putting much emphasis on the most significant achievements.

    The same years saw birth of technologies like photography and cinema, thus permitting illustration of a large part of important aeronautical events from the start. Countless (and sometimes rare) media recently put online by enthousiasts finally give us access to these treasures, but the huge amount of information often makes things a little messy. A centralization effort is obviously most needed at this level.

    All persons who directly or indirectly contributed to the achievement or posting of such documents are here gratefully acknowledged.

    General

    Fluid website

    This site automatically fits the dimensions of your screen, whether you are on a desktop computer, a tablet or a smartphone.

    Bilingual website

    You can change the language by clicking on the flag in the upper left or via "Options" in the central menu. Of course, the videos remain in the language in which they were posted ...

    Browser compatibility

    The site is not optimized, or even designed to run on older browsers or those deliberately deviating from standards. You will most probably encounter display issues with Internet Explorer. In this case, it is strongly recommended installing a modern (and free!) browser that's respecting the standards, like Firefox, Opera, Chrome or Safari.

    Cookies and Javascript

    This site uses cookies and JavaScript to function properly. Please ensure that your browser is configured accordingly. Neither of these technologies, or other means shall in no case be used on the Site for the retention or disclosure of personal information about its Visitors. See the "Legal" page for more on this subject.

    Website layout

    Left menus

    Because of the lack of space on smartphones and small tablets, these menus are hidden. Everything is nevertheless accessible via the main menu option, located between the video and photo sections. This menu is placed there for compatibility reasons with some browsers, which play the videos over the menus.

    "Search" and "Latest" :
    The link "In Titles" restricts the search to the titles of different forms. Use this option if you are looking for a plane, a constructor, a pilot or a particular event that could have been treated as a subject.

    The link "In Stories" will bring you to a search in all texts (the "Story" tab) and will take more time. The search term will appear highlighted in green when opening the corresponding story.

    Would you believe, "Timeline" will show all subjects in chronological order.

    "Random" will reload the entire page with a new random topic.

    The bottom section keeps you abreast of the latest five entries. New topics are added regularly. Don't hesitate to come visit us often : add bookmark.

    Blogs and Comments central section

    Under the photos section comes the comments tabs window :

    You can enter general comments in your own language via one of the two buttons on the left (BLOG EN and BLOG FR). Note that these buttons are accessible regardless of the language to allow some participation in the other language.

    All comments are subject to moderation and will be published only if they comply with the basic rules of decorum, while remaining relevant to the purpose of this site.

    The third tab allows you to enter comments on the shown topic and is bilingual. Personal anecdotes, supplements and other information questions will take place here.

    The "Story" tab shows the explanatory texts. They are most often taken from Wikipedia, a site where we participate regularly.

    The "Data" tab is reserved for list of features and specifications.

    Right menus

    On a smartphone, the lack of space is growing and this menu is moved to the bottom of the page to give priority to videos and pictures.

    The top right icons are links to videos posted by third parties (on their own responsabilities) or by ourselves. The link below these icons will take you to the channel of the one who posted the video. Feel free to suggest other videos if you think they are of some interest (Use the BLOG button or the "Contact" link).