Fairey Rotodyne
| Rotodyne | |
|---|---|
 |
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| The Fairey Rotodyne prototype circa 1959. | |
| Role | Compound gyroplane |
| National origin | United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | Fairey Aviation |
| First flight | 6 November 1957 |
| Status | Cancelled 1962 |
| Number built | One |
| Developed from | Fairey Jet Gyrodyne |
 Rotodyne lifting a bridge
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Cutaway drawing of Rotodyne from Flightglobal.com (Archive) |
The Fairey Rotodyne was a 1950s British compound gyroplane designed and built by Fairey Aviation and intended for commercial and military applications. A development of the earlier Gyrodyne, which had established a world helicopter speed record, the Rotodyne featured a tip jet-powered rotor that burned a mixture of fuel and compressed air bled from two wing-mounted Napier Eland turboprops. The rotor was driven for vertical takeoffs, landings and hovering, as well as low-speed translational flight, and autorotated during cruise flight with all engine power applied to two propellers.
One prototype was built. Although the Rotodyne was promising in concept and successful in trials, the programme was eventually cancelled. The termination has been attributed to the type failing to attract any commercial orders; this was in part due to concerns over the high levels of rotor tip jet noise generated inflight. Politics – the development was government funded – had also played a role in the lack of orders, which ultimately doomed the project.
From the late 1930s onwards, considerable progress was made on an entirely new field of aeronautics in the form of rotary-wing aircraft. While some progress in Britain had been made prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, wartime priorities placed upon the aviation industry meant that British programs to development rotorcraft and helicopter were marginalised at best. In the immediate post-war climate, the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy elected to procure American-developed helicopters in the form of the Sikorsky R-4 and Sikorsky R-6, known locally as the Hoverfly I and Hoverfly II respectively. Experience from the operation of these rotorcraft, along with the extensive examination that was conducted upon captured German helicopter prototypes, stimulated considerable interest within the services and industry alike in developing their own advanced rotorcraft.
Fairey Aviation was one such company that was intrigued by the potential of rotary-wing aircraft, and proceeded to develop the Fairey FB-1 Gyrodyne in accordance with Specification E.16/47. The Gyrodyne was 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 inventor, Dr. J.A.J. Bennett, formerly Chief Technical Officer of the pre-Second World War Cierva Autogiro Company 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. On 28 June 1948, the FB-1 proved its potential during test flights when it achieved a world airspeed record, having attaining a recorded speed of 124.3 mph (200.0 km/h) . The programme was not trouble-free however, a fatal accident involving one of the prototypes occurring in April 1949 due to poor machining of a rotor blade flapping link retaining nut. 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, being renamed the Jet Gyrodyne.
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Wikipedia