Fairey Rotodyne
From Object Wiki
| Fairey Rotodyne | |
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| Manufacturer | (unknown) |
| Production years | (unknown) |
| Production location | (unknown) |
The Fairey Rotodyne ‘airbus’ was developed as a military project from 1953 until 1962. Its ability to take off and land vertically could also free air travel from large, remote airports, allowing long-distance travel directly between city centres. One major drawback was the very noisy tip-jet engines which drove the rotors.
[edit] How it works
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. |
This is like a giant helicopter; the rotor is so large that the tips of the blades have little jet engines on them to help it spin fast enough to lift its enormous weight.
Above explanation is not correct. In fact the rotor was driven only by the tip mounted ramjet engines. Thus a tail rotor to compensate the rotation force was not necessary. In horizontal flight the rotor was used in unpowered autorotation and created approximately 65% of lift, the rest beeing produced by the stubby wings. So we can say, that the Rotodyne was not a helicopter but a gyrocopter.
Also, the tip jets were not ram jets, but they were powered by air from compressors linked to the props. The air was mixed with fuel and blasted out the back of the tubes on the rotor tips.
[edit] Memories
I was lucky enough to see the Fairey Rotodyne fly at the 1960 Farnborough Air Show. And I built the Airfix model! The noisy tip-burning jets only operated at the hover and at low speed – above 55 knots the 90ft rotor autorotated with the forward motion, adding to the lift from the stubby wings. The Rotodyne achieved about 190mph. Rolls-Royce were developing the Tyne turboprop engine for it.
— Dennis Wills, Portsmouth
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Do you remember the Fairey Rotodyne? Add your memories. |
[edit] In the Science Museum
The Museum acquired a 1:24 scale of the Fairey Rotodyne in 1991 from Mr Dipl.-Ing. August Stepan Inv. No: 1991-74
This object is currently on display in the Dan Dare & the Birth of Hi-Tech Britain exhibition at the Science Museum, London.