CarterCopter flight test - and crash

This is a video that ends with a bang. Produced in 2003, it shows flight tests of the CarterCopter high-speed autogyro, which has crashed 8 times in 5 years - and no-one has been hurt! Check out the website - www.cartercopters.com - for the full story...

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• CarterCopter
• autogyro
• helicopter
• crash

[chueffer]

Luckily the ground was there to break his fall.

[pinewood189]

the run way was built to high

[rjardy]

I love how everyone on YouTube thinks they're a pilot with a long winded scientific explanation of why a crash occurred.... Mean while that jargon is clear BS to actual pilots with understanding of aerodynamics and helicopter/airplane flight. Oh internets....

I will say the machine held together remarkably well.

[PushyLittleKid]

Highly negligent. Put everyone at risk of being hurt by flying debris.

[apollonorthamerica]

LOL. Helps to go through a checklist, especially when you are a paid test pilot :) Sorry couldn't resist. At least no one got hurt

[bluberrybuddy420]

next time drop the landing gear first!

[PhuqueUTube3]

@FlightLevelHeaded The sink rate was well within the design specs for this aircraft. But those specs were with gear extended. LOL Even so, it looks like the damage was minimal for a gear-up landing in a conventional aircraft. Since this pilot error incident, the Cartercopter has accumulated many flight hours with no serious problems.

[dsjm1]

The only pilot I ever knew who could fly the CC by the seat of his pants was Don Farrington. Sadly he (whilst acting as the chief test pilot for CC) died at an airshow in his own designed craft after a takeoff & what appeared to be a heart problem.

Don was certified an most types of aircraft. Of the new guys *when under real stress*, they tended to fly it as a fixed wing or a chopper by instinct, whereas Don Farrington seemed to be able to see it as both craft & take the right action.

[dsjm1]

The Cartercopter here was being demoed to high level military brass & the pilots (military trained guys) were so focused on putting on a good show that they completely overlooked the need to put the landing gear down then in the pressure of that realization forgot they could have pulled collective. It was to be a high speed touch n go.

The CC has 55lbs of depleted uranium in each rotor tip. Rotor inertia provides the energy for quick vertical lift. Landing an be at 24 ft/sec sink rate.

[andytheweb]

They didn't know the landing gear was up? ... and these people are paid money?

[mprime6807]

Say what you want. That thing survived remarkably well.

[winterka100]

Maybe at that speed he had too much lift on the wings to get the rotor to spin up for a gentle landing, but still not enough speed for the wings , causing a stall.(Landing in the transition period between rotor lift and wing lift).