Obviously inspired by the Fairey Rotodyne, a most useful aircraft that had the misfortune to be British, the Avro rotodyne is a jet engine powered gyrodyne (gyrocopter with powered rotor), capable of speeds up to 480 mph, can take off and land vertically, and seems the answer to medium range passenger routes that can save a lot of money by not needing to land at expensive airports.

Avro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFk5Y_F-dwg

Fairey Rotodyne

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Z1UnRZDyo

Well it must not have been economically viable.
Probably too heavy on juice for payload.

Peak Warming Man said:

Well it must not have been economically viable.
Probably too heavy on juice for payload.

I believe it was the noise of the jet powered rotor that killed off the Fairey model, something Avro reckon they have fixed.

No.

I give my approval to 10 billion dollars in funding immediately

Tip-jet rotors are invariably ****ing noisy.

Hiller also had some experimentals in the US some decades back.

Every time they started one up, complaints about the noise flooded in from a radius of several miles.

The sad thing is, they managed to get the Rotodyne’s noise down to 96 db, from the original 113 db.

113 db is pretty bad, especially for an aircraft that was meant to use heliport-type facilities in built-up areas.

When they got it down to 96 db, it was no worse than the average motor mower. Could cause hearing loss, but it’d take 8 hours or more exposure. Noise levels from aircraft coming and going would have been no worse than any Sunday in a suburban street.

Unfortunately, by the time they’d managed that, the damage had been done to the project.

wookiemeister said:

I give my approval to 10 billion dollars in funding immediately

How many pot plants is that?

if I were putting the aerodyne back together I’d only have one engine – more efficient

you’d have a jet engine powering a generator

power would be fed to three electric motors (smaller, lighter, less complicated) via a powersupply

you could have two engines just in case I suppose but linked to the same generator

This looks like a development of the Eurocopter X3

If the engines were ramjets then the result would be interesting. Ramjets are only useful above Mach 0.5 so use the helicopter to get up to a speed where the ramjet can take over.

The Sikorsky X2 makes more sense.

I’m waiting for a human-carrying quadcopter.

mollwollfumble said:

This looks like a development of the Eurocopter X3

If the engines were ramjets then the result would be interesting. Ramjets are only useful above Mach 0.5 so use the helicopter to get up to a speed where the ramjet can take over.

The Sikorsky X2 makes more sense.

I’m waiting for a human-carrying quadcopter.

Wait till someone dies and their relatives have them stuffed and stretched over a quadcopter frame – seems to be the go for pet cats at the moment.

Neophyte said:

mollwollfumble said:

This looks like a development of the Eurocopter X3

If the engines were ramjets then the result would be interesting. Ramjets are only useful above Mach 0.5 so use the helicopter to get up to a speed where the ramjet can take over.

The Sikorsky X2 makes more sense.

I’m waiting for a human-carrying quadcopter.

Wait till someone dies and their relatives have them stuffed and stretched over a quadcopter frame – seems to be the go for pet cats at the moment.

I think skinned rather than stuffed

i want to see a cat in a shark suit on a quadcopter.

I’ll raise you two cats

mollwollfumble said:

I’m waiting for a human-carrying quadcopter.

http://www.popsci.com.au/tech/video-maryland-student-hovers-8-feet-high-in-humanpowered-helicopter-smashing-previous-records,378258
Not only human carrying, but human powered…

mollwollfumble said:

I’m waiting for a human-carrying quadcopter.

Here you go, kinda.

I have tentative plans to build a quad-rotor coptor with four motors and rotors larger than the ones in that video so I can have my own personal flying machine.
All going well I’ll be able to fly down to the local shop and back. Carbon-fibre tube frame, etc.

ms spock said:

mollwollfumble said:

I’m waiting for a human-carrying quadcopter.

Here you go, kinda.

I have tentative plans to build a quad-rotor coptor with four motors and rotors larger than the ones in that video so I can have my own personal flying machine.
All going well I’ll be able to fly down to the local shop and back. Carbon-fibre tube frame, etc.

nice plan spockie…nice plan

ms spock said:

mollwollfumble said:

I’m waiting for a human-carrying quadcopter.

Here you go, kinda.

I have tentative plans to build a quad-rotor coptor with four motors and rotors larger than the ones in that video so I can have my own personal flying machine.
All going well I’ll be able to fly down to the local shop and back. Carbon-fibre tube frame, etc.

…. and I should have checked who I was logged-in as.
This is, of course, Billzilla.

ms spock said:

ms spock said:

mollwollfumble said:

I’m waiting for a human-carrying quadcopter.

Here you go, kinda.

I have tentative plans to build a quad-rotor coptor with four motors and rotors larger than the ones in that video so I can have my own personal flying machine.
All going well I’ll be able to fly down to the local shop and back. Carbon-fibre tube frame, etc.

suspected but ms spock likes the enterprise so…

:)

…. and I should have checked who I was logged-in as.
This is, of course, Billzilla.