Roton Rotary Rocket SSTO with Helicopter Landing

Rotary Rocket Company was a rocketry company that developed the Roton concept in the late 1990s as a fully reusable single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) crewed spacecraft with a rotating annular aerospike engine to pump fuel and oxidizer to the rim by the rotation and a helicopter rotor on top used for landing.
The design was initially conceived by Bevin McKinney, who shared it with Gary Hudson.

[johnhyll]

Crazy concept. On the first and only prototype the cockpit was called “the batcave” because the pilot’s view was so restricted. Great animation!

[gabrielbennett]

Saw the full-scale prototype of this thing up close at the Mojave Airport in 2014. It's huge! Much bigger than its pictures would give you the impression of.

[alt]

The fact that a prototype of this damn thing actually _flew_ is crazy and slightly terrifying.

[skenzyme]

Oh my gosh, it is SO MUCH more ridiculous than the old concept art implied. THANK YOU for bringing it to life! 😂

[Dronte]

And that's why when I was a child and I told my parents about my aspirations to be an aeronautical engineer, the first thing they did was forbid me to see Inspector Gadget.
More seriously, for those who ask about it, the fuel tanks occupy practically the entire rest of the vehicle with the kerosene tank behind the cargo compartment and the LOX tank in front of it extending almost to the bow.
As always, many thanks to Hazegrayart for sharing his great work.

[Conman-licd]

This thing was the most insane idea to ever get legitimate funding and time put into its development

[skenzyme]

LOL, please, please, please, do one of those cutaway animations showing where the FUEL TANKS are on this thing. Based on the size of that cargo bay, I’m guessing the fuel is stored in higher dimension tanks that have only a small footprint in our regular three, LoL.

[Caspar_Stanley]

Once again, a brilliant animation. Thank you for bringing this ridiculous concept to life.

I never got a sci-fi feeling from it, but this made be think of escape pods that land under a heli blades.

[unitigp]

Nice job! It looks like "Pepelaz" from soviet movie "Kin Dza Dza"!

[IAlwaysWantedToTryThat]

I took a trip to go see this bad boy out near Edwards last year when I got flown out to JPL for a few days. Too amazing to see up close -- apparently according to the pilots who tested it, the difficulty landing was an 11/10, and I can see why. Amazing work as usual, boss!

[rcketplumber]

I like the chase helicopter as a nod to the rotor system used on the ATV, reclaimed from a Sikorski S58. I saw all four flights, and it sounded a lot like Harley-Davidson from hell with the exhaust plumes from the tip thrusters going around at 4x the rotor speed.

(My dad was a prisoner in East Germany for six weeks after the S55 on which he was a passenger went off course and crashed on the wrong side of the border in 1958.)

[bill_ruppert]

Gorgeous video. Loved the 2001 vibe. I was hoping it would land next to one of those little monoliths that are popping up. Lol.

[SebastianKaliszewski]

Funny thing the test article is still there and you can see it up close. Don't miss it whenever you're driving by Mojave, it's like 5minute detour, it's at the main entrance of the airport/spaceport. It's beside the memorial for those who died during Space Ship Two development.

[wesleyashley]

This was a great design. It was just difficult to fly manually so it lost funding. It would be easier to operate today with computer control.

[jayc]

I would much prefer Elon Musk to adopt this method of descent and landing Immediately

[jinniu]

Amazing work on this, you're getting better and better.

[AwfulnewsFM]

As much as SpaceX may try Starship can never match the absolute glory of the holy Roton.

[theallknowingorbitalteapot]

The Rocket Equation's arch nemesis

Amazing work btw

[FQP-]

Absolutely wonderful, amazing. I can only say this is great, I literally don't see me complaining about anything here.

[x-archive]

For those interested, Elizabeth Weil's book "They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus" covers the history of the Rotary Rocket company and is a great read on the ambition and absurdity of the Roton concept.