Fairey Rotodyne

[1fsnl1]

stupid people who complained about the noise without those people it was still flying maby

[upforlastnameleft]

And there was a military version with rear clam shell doors which could carry vehicles... I wonder why the government of the day didn't get behind it? Things like this beggar belief.

[sweetsongman1]

aaa the rotodyne. very nice aircraft. pretty versatile by the looks of it. i ave a binder of aircraft learned the rotodyne this way

[BukerG]

I've only seen pix of this thing up til now..bless Ya,Youtube! Would like to have been able to hear it ,though..

[sdrfgvrfgvsfravgdsvS]

nice I have a question, this heli can stop completly the main rotor when goes flying horizontal?

[BukerG]

The short answer would be No...the main rotor would provide lift in flight through autorotation..

[sdrfgvrfgvsfravgdsvS]

but have a small wings

[jasmine547]

Looks far more safer and stable than the Osprey. Probably cheaper to build also. Sometimes newer isn't always better.

[jennifermallet]

This brings back memories whilst living in Maidenhead.. Rotodyne would fly over, incredibly loud, and you never know what it might do!!

[Arcmate]

The swirly trails from the rotor tips are the tip jets starting up. They tapped gas from the main engines hence no torque problems. It was apparently nerve shatteringly loud in flight. A very valid idea even today - I could see them going into London City Airport, no problem.

[yeogav]

What a beast! Looks a bit dodgy though and I would not have liked to travel in one.

[whizbang47]

Vietnam killed this ship. Kaman was supposed to build them under license but all their plant got devoted to military helicopter work (Seasprite, etc.) A big drag! This was the most sensible VTOL transport built.

[BukerG]

Apparently it was to be jointly developed for /with the military,but they pulled out,leaving r+d to civil funding..(another youtube vid shows one positioning a large bridge section,so was versatile!) the noise of the tip jets was said to be a deciding issue,equated to as loud as a DC-8(?),but only in landing/t/o phase,not a factor in flight..I liked the direct to 3 Euro city hop inside 3 hours demo,faster than alternatives+ conventional air transport..

[whizbang47]

Yes! Islip and/or Newark connections for JFK over the ocean. Put amphibious floats on it and serve Atlantic City, the Hamptons and Cape Cod. Any coastal place now served by a helipad. Same would go for jungles. I believe the (or one) 'proof of concept ' prototype flew with ignition at the tips at first. But that was the two-blade incarnation and I believe it crashed(?) My memory is sketchy but this may explain why so many think it did have tip combustion.

[autogyrofreak]

I would expect the designers to design for a worst case scenario. Maybe the plane would be wrecked but I guess the crash should be survivable for the passengers and crew.

[625pal]

It was quite capable of a conventional runway landing, without the rotor jets powered. It also handled well on only one engine. The downside was the noise from the tip jets.

[tvfilmglamdirector]

I wonder what would have happened if the tip jets failed to ignite during the landing phase? Would there have been enough stored energy in the rotor to auro-rotate under control? If only 2 jets ignited would that have been enough in full weight senarios?

[quasarhi]

what a machine..very impressed !

I say ...Bring it back !

Anyone care to comment who may have worked on this beauty..

[tvfilmglamdirector]

Nice archive, Ram jet tip motors I understand? what a concept!

[Zadster]

No, but I can understand why you'd think that. It used high pressure gasses from the turboprob engines and ducted them through to the tips. Each engine feeding 2 opposite jets, so that if 1 engine died it would still have rotary power.

This is the first moving footage I have seen of this beastie! An absolutely fantastic concept, way before its time!

[tvfilmglamdirector]

I think it was jet-tipped powered rotors, burning fuel with compressed air bled from two wingtip mounted Napier Eland turboprops? I think there was a fuel supply to the tips, Im certain I saw a drawing for it while I worked at British Airways.