Rotodyne: The Incredible Aircraft That (Nearly) Revolutionized Air Travel

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[cggage]

I have always been a fan of the Rotodyne. It is a shame it was not preserved in a museum.

[neilhollands]

My father worked at Fairey as a clerk in the 1950's and always spoke highly of the Rotodyne. Thanks for bringing it back to my attention.

[ScarabaeusSacer]

One cutaway animation showing just how these worked-- the interplay between engines and tip-jets, would have been worth a thousand words.

[bellshooter]

I remember making and painting an Airfix kit of the Fairey Rotodyne, in the early 60's, I was a fan!

[deetesmin]

Not the first time government has scrapped brilliant designs.

[mrb.]

No CAD, no fly by wire, no composite materials .... and yet it worked and worked bloody well.


Imagine what 60 years of development could have done to this.

[danbenson]

Engineering Nerd Here. Three types of tip drive helicopters: compressed air squirted thru tip nozzles (Sud-Quest Djinn), fuel and compressed air ignited in an afterburner (Fairey Rotodyne), and ramjet tip engines (Hiller Hornet).
Tip nozzles are very inefficient, the afterburner is more efficient but incredible noisy, and the Ramjet both inefficient and noisy.
The helicopter blade tip velocity is, say, at .80 Mach. To produce thrust the tip drives exhaust velocity must exceed .80 Mach, say Mach 1.5 or more. This high velocity stream ripping the standing air creates noise, a lot of noise. While the racket can be meliorated, the result remains unacceptable. Another problem is the tip jet forces cause control issues. The physics just can’t be juggled to an acceptable outcome.
So the compromise for vertical capability and speedy horizontal flight evolved into the Bell V22. Still the Rotodyne has a place in my heart. Cheers

[brianford]

I wet myself when my Granny gave me the Airfix kit of that loud typically British wonder Luft....really enjoyed Chapski! ✌️

[Deepthought-]

16:24 Loved the Vulcan and Victor in the background, presumably at Farnborough.

[noahwail]

I have been facinated by this plane for decades, and would realy like to see it resurected in modern materials. I am shure that many of its problems could be solved now.

[febweb]

My father was based at White Waltham in the late 1950's. When the Rotodyne was being tested it would sometimes fly over our house. The noise was incredibly. My mother was terrified that the vibratory noise would shake her ornaments off the mantle piece. The USA now use the Kestrel for purposes similar to the Rotodyne.

[kevatut]

I designed a new consumer based aircraft concept for the company that bought the rights to Rotodyne back in 2004. Very interesting project. But like so many re-imagining efforts, it died in fairly short order.

[RichardPentreath]

I was pleased to see a picture of my one-time Westland Flight Test colleague, David Gibbings. Although he did have a pilot's licence, he was actually employed as a Flight Test Observer. As I recall, our other colleagues Ron Gellatly and John Morton were the test pilots on the Rotordyne.

[frasermitchell]

I actually saw one in flight from our garden ! I was 10 at the time. Of course USAF B47 bombers flew past regularly on their way to land at Greenham Common; also a B36 once ! Heard sonic bangs too ! Farnbrough wasn't too far away.

[demonorb]

I work at white waltham, great history to the airfield.
The heli museum has the only surviving parts of the rotordyne and I must go visit.

[davevann]

This video listed 3 types of rotary aircraft. Another type is the cyclogyro, with some companies currently designing and building cyclogyro aircraft and drones.

[voornaam]

This is great! In an old Belgian comics series, Suske and Wiske, they often flew in a gyrodyne. The man writing and drawing this strip, Willy Vandersteen, included the modern things of the fifties!

[alanmartinez]

Thank you for using both metric and imperial measurements in the narration...👍

[bicyclist]

Looks cool. I think I've seen some photo's of it before, but this is the first time I've heard anything about it. Very cool. Thank you.

[domatlan]

This absolutely needs to be revisited as a troop carrier etc. The problem with the v22 is that the transition phase between forward and vertical flight is called a rock phase.