Fairey Rotodyne - project cancelled - 1/4

Help support the gyrocopter channel:
paypal.me/gyro...
This story of Rotodyne from its conception through the flight test programme (including route proving to Paris and Brussels) to the disappointment of its cancellation in 1962.
CENTRAL LONDON TO THE EIFFEL TOWER IN 60 MINUTES was the original promise. City centre to city centre travel would be revolutionised in an age before high speed trains or the Channel Tunnel. Fairey also offered the Rotodyne for military use, as a flying crane or even as a car and bike ferry!
Mr David Gibbings MBE CEng FRAeS
David Gibbings entered the Royal Air Force in 1949 as an apprentice and subsequently trained as a navigator. He joined Fairey aviation, in 1955, to work on guided weapons. In 1959 he transferred to the Fairey Aircraft Division in Hayes, to work on the Rotodyne tip jets and to fly in the Rotodyne as Flight Engineer. After Westland acquired Fairey Aviation in 1960 and on conclusion of the Rotodyne programme in 1962, he worked on the new Wasp and Scout helicopters before moving to Yeovil.
After three years in the Westland Flight Test Department at Yeovil David was appointed Project Flight Test Emgineer for the new Lynx programme, in 1967, and flew in the prototype on its first flight. After periods as Helicopter Icing Trials Manager fro 1977 and Deputy Chief Flight Test Engineer fro 1980, he was appointed Chief Flight Test Engineer in 1989.
He remained in that post until retirement in 1993. Since then he has continued to work in the UK and overseas, as an engineering author, consultant, lecturer and aviation artist. He presented the ‘Cierva Lecture to the RAeS in 2003.He was awarded the Kelly Johnson award from the Society for Flight Test Engineers for outstanding achievement in his field, the first recipient of the award outside the U.S.
Mr Victor Alfred Baden Rogers (aka VAB Rogers) CBE MSc FREng FRAeS FIMechE CEng 1926-2015
Vic Rogers, retired, formerly Group & Technical Director of Westland plc
Vic joined Fairey Aviation’s inspection department as a shop boy at the age of 15 becoming a Junior Inspector before transitioning through craft apprentice to the graduate stream as an Aeronautical Engineering Apprentice. In 1946 he was awarded an SBAC scholarship to attend the newly formed College of Aeronautics at Cranfield, gaining a Diploma in Aeronautical Engineering (DCAe) with Distinction in Aircraft Design.
Returning to Fairey in 1948, Vic joined the new Helicopter section playing a key role within the Stress Office. He was instrumental in establishing a sound analytical approach to stress and dynamic analysis and other technical challenges within the emerging field of helicopter design with specific responsibility for stress and dynamics development throughout the Fairey Rotodyne programme.
During the 1960s, in line with British government policy, the early work undertaken by Fairey, Bristol & Saunders-Roe was consolidated into Westland Aircraft Ltd. Vic moved to Westland Helicopters in Yeovil as Deputy Chief Designer in 1963 and was appointed Chief Designer in 1966.
Responsible for the initial development and flight programme for the Westland Lynx, Vic was appointed Technical Director in 1972. He joined the Westland board in 1980 and retained responsibility for technical issues until he retired in 1988. Vic also served on multiple industry boards and committees associated with design and airworthiness standards.
Joining the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1944, Vic was elected a Fellow in 1963. He was a member of the Westland team of five which received the MacRobert Award for engineering innovation in 1975 and received the Royal Aeronautical Society Silver medal in 1979.
Vic was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 1979, a distinction of which he was particularly proud. He was recognised in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list and received his CBE from the Queen in 1986.
Vic Rogers was uncompromising in his attitude towards airworthiness and design integrity. He and his team were responsible for establishing a fundamental understanding of the dynamics behaviour and stressing analysis methodologies required for safe rotorcraft design, a fitting legacy to the industry.