Fairey Rotodyne: Unrealistic Expectations
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- Опубліковано 20 жов 2024
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The story of Fairey Aviation began in 1915. Charles Richard Fairey-this guy [draw an arrow pointing to his portrait]-was the chief engineer for Short Brothers, an aerospace company that is still active today. As the First World War sounded the death knell, he applied for the Royal Naval Air Service [RNAS]. He was rejected for two reasons: 1) his medical numbers were off, and most importantly, 2) the British Admiralty Department believed his skills were more suited to designing aircraft rather than flying them.
The young lad did not like that decision. After stirring up the proverbial hornet’s nest, the 26-year-old agreed on one condition: He would be given a subcontract, allowing him to open his own company. The Admiralty granted his request, giving him a contract to build 12 Short 827 seaplanes for the same navy that had rejected his services.
The company only grew from there and built bombers and fighters during the Second World War. As the war came to a close, it shifted to commercial ventures to capture the market; like all aerospace companies of the time. Speculation regarding rotary-wing aircraft was increasing everyday, and the leadership wanted to make a groundbreaking machine that would separate them from the competition.
To do this, they decided to combine the quick takeoff and maneuvering abilities of a helicopter and the speed and precision of a plane into a compound helicopter. They hired JAJ Bennet, former chief technical officer at the Cierva Autogiro Company, to turn their plans into reality. He had developed some designs at his previous company, but they were tendered to Fairey Aviation in 1938. Resuming work after the Second World War, Bennet and his team worked tirelessly on these designs. By 1947, they had a working prototype: the Fairey FB-1 Gyrodyne.
This rotorcraft featured a three-blade rotor and no tail rotor. The rotor was powered by a 520 horsepower radial engine during takeoff, hover, and landing. A propeller was installed on the starboard wing to counter torque, and the engine would route extra power to this propeller for forward thrust. The vehicle weighed around 2000 kilograms [4410 lb] and could move at max speed of around 215 kph [or 133 mph], a world record for helicopters. Impressed by the machine, the British Army selected it for use in foreign operations. The design team began working on a second iteration, but a crash that led to the pilot and observer’s death postponed the project.
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On of the biggest problems for Helicopters is Sand... they don't like it in their delicate mechanisms.
So I am very curious how this kinda design would be adaptable to desert operations.
But yeah I agree the noise is an issue... but they likely didn't have the easy means to know how to reduce it then.
It would be interesting to run some simulations and see how low it would be possible to get the noise with modern parts.. I also can't help but think that it might be possible to make something entirely powered by Jet turbines instead of using Propellers. I can't but think for all the issue with noise the ability to stol take off would be an actual advantage for something like a Carrier born Aircraft (even if it was just carrying mail and supplies of people).
I'd also be very interested to know what it's rough weather performance would be like. might it be suited to oil rigs ?
Or medical evac off a ship ?
I have to wonder it looks like a modern version could be very fast compared to an average helicopter and in standard flight it might even not really be that much different in noise terms with the rotors in auto-gyro-mode.
As I often joke.. "Cobra* would love this"
(as in Gi Joe*)
This was such a fascinating watch.
reminds me of the osprey. very interesting documentary.
Had the Airfix kit as a kid and have loved it ever since. There were alternative tip-jet technologies, one American machine used ram jets and took off like an errant Catherine wheel firework. Had development continued it could have been a very valuable aircraft. Given the size of the fin it may have been possible to install a turbojet and gearbox, converting it into a helicopter with wing mounted engines, that way the lift engine could be shut down in flight, saving fuel. A lot of these older designs had merit, the Kurds (remember them?) bought autogyros for their traffic police as when they land there is no down-draught to stir up clouds of dust and cause accidents,
My very first scale model was a Rotodyne.
Simply too cool.
Great video...👍
It looks like something from The Thunderbirds.
Also it is kinda funny nobody noticed or made a point of the titanic noise levels until pretty far in the process. There is probably some lesson about user oriented design there.
Remember thst thunderbirds supersonic jet?
@@BeepBoop2221 how about thunderburd 2.. that is a big heavy baby
my old boss was friends with the fairey family. he said the rotodyne was amazing alas for one tiny issue. The tip jets were very very very loud. the exiting air was supersonic so the booms were constant. a little bit of a problem in built up areas where you may wish to fly a chopper.
Too bad this Fairey tale ended badly ☺️
To put 113DB into perspective that’s how loud a drum kit is when you stand next to it.
The Rotodyne was that loud 180M, 600ft away.
The high noise level (and possibly high fuel consumption) put an end to the Rotodyne project anyway.
90db is the sound of a blender on max
@@calzoneboi2696
I never know CGI was that loud.
@@Margarinetaylorgrease i meant a blender for smoothies or fruits on maximum power sorry for confusion
@@calzoneboi2696
CPU fans can be noisy 😆
Roll Royce also played, as so often, a role in the shenanigans. It tried to push its own turbine engine to Westland which would have necessitated a major reingineering effort with little to show for it. Since it was not a Westland design anyway this gave the Westland dominated board of directors yet another excuse to stop the project, leaving us with nothing more then another great “what if” story.
It wasnt that loud! Saw it fly at SBAC show and normal conversation was quite possible in its presence. Another political loss like the Arrow TSR2 (arguBLY) AND sah1 TO NAME A FEW.
The TSR.2 was just limited a combat plane given its long and protracted development. The RAF should have taken up Blackburn's offer of an upgraded Buccaneer and gotten the Canberra replacement possibly as early as 1966!
@@Sacto1654 yep
Typical British, still happening.