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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0356.PDF
372 FLIGHT, 21 March 1958 Helicopters of the World . •. designer (rotating wing) of the FaireyAviation Company, commented in these terms: "In our approach to this aircraft,as the natural result of the B.E.A. interest, the preparation of the basic requirementsand our thinking have been directed to- wards the civil market, and the require-ments of a civil transport machine have dominated our approach in many respects.For example, great emphasis has been laid on meeting the one-engine-failed perform-ance requirement, and a great deal of thought has gone into the handling andcontrol problems in this case. This approach has perhaps tended to lengthenour task in designing and building the prototype, since for a purely research air-craft it would have been possible to have omitted certain of these design features.In my view this approach would have been quite wrong, as by-passing fundamentalhandling, control and performance re- quirements at this stage would haveresulted in having to do a great deal of the work again—and with greater difficulty—when the success of the aircraft as a bare research flying machine had been demon-strated. We have had firmly fixed in mind thatour ultimate objective was to sell the air- craft in the civil market and we have doneour level best to meet and anticipate the sort of requirements which will be needednot only by the operators but by the cer- tification authorities. . . . "Whilst the aircraft is obviously just assuitable for the transport of soldiers or their equipment as for the carrying of fare-paying passengers, the military asked that the fuselage of the second aircraft be madeof a cross-section suitable to carry Army vehicles. This, and possible interest forcar-ftrry work, resulted in the second machine being designed with a largerfuselage." • Rotor diam., 90ft; fuselage length (inter-nal), 46ft; fuselage length (external), 58ft 8in; gross weight, 39,000 lb; disposable load,15,500 1b; range with 40 passengers, 310 miles; max. range, 460 miles; cruising speed,185 m.p.h. Ultra Light This tiny helicopter hasnumerous civil and military applications. A Blackburn Turbomeca Palouste is thebasic powerplant, and there are Fairey pressure-jet units at the tips of the rotorblades. The rotor is driven by the tip-jet units burning fuel mixed with the com-pressed air fed out through the hollow blades from the Palouste turbo-generator.This simple system is claimed to give the Ultra Light a rate of climb higher thanis achieved by any other helicopter in the world. The powerplant is further claimedto start instantaneously on the ground without any auxiliary motors: it bums allgrades of kerosine and petrol; it dispenses with the tail rotor, since a tip-driven rotat-ing wing is torqueless; and, most of all, it does away entirely with shafts, gears,clutches, and the complications inseparable from a rotor conventionally driven by apiston engine. At the centre of the basic structure is alight-alloy box containing a crash-proof fuel tank. From the top of this box stemsa rubber-mounted pylon; to the rear is a box-girder boom carrying fins and rudder.The remainder of the aircraft is built around this "core." The boom is split halfway down its length by a bolted joint so that the entire aircraft can be broken downquickly into a package 9ft by 10ft 8in by 6ft 6in for air or surface transport. Land-ing gear consists merely of a pair of tubular steel skids across which porter bars canbe inserted so that the aircraft can be carried manually. The makers state that the rotor bladescan be removed and replaced in fifteen minutes and that the engine and completerotor assembly can be changed in under two hours. 9 Rotor diam., 28ft; overall length (lessrotor), 14ft 8in; gross weight, 1,800 lb; dispos- able load, 850 lb; max. endurance, 2 hr 30 rnin;cruising speed, 95 m.p.h.; vertical rate of climb at s.l., 950ft/min; hovering ceiling (out ofground effect), 5,000ft. Saunders-Roe, Ltd. Osborne, East Covies, Isle of Wight. Skeeter Mk 12 The Mk 12 version of the Skeeter two-seater light helicopter is in production for the British Army and the German Army and Navy. Certain of the Skeeters for Germany have provision for fitting Napier rocket boost. The aircraft is of all-metal construction with the exception of the rotor blades. The forward fuselage is a conventional light-alloy structure incorporating a crash- proof tank situated behind the pilots' seats. The centre section, which also con- stitutes the engine mounting, is fabricated from steel tubes to facilitate engine and transmission maintenance; the rear fuse- lage is of light-alloy monocoque construc- tion, enclosing the shafting and gearboxes which drive the tail rotor. The crew of two are seated side-by- side. Full dual controls are available, allow- ing the helicopter to be flown from either seat, or to be used as a trainer. Seats are Below and right, Saunders-Roe Skeeter Mk 12. individually removable and a long-rangetank may be installed in place of the seat normally used by the observer. This seatcan be reversed if required, and rearward vision is satisfactory for A.O.P. work. Theradio is fitted on the floor between the crew seats. There is provision for twostretchers, externally attached to the sides of the cabin. The basic aircraft is powered by a nor-mally aspirated de Havilland Gipsy Major 215 helicopter engine (215 b.h.p. maxi-mum one-hour rating). This is installed transversely, the drive for the main rotorbeing taken from the end of the crank- shaft on the starboard side of the aircraft.Fan cooling is provided through a star- board intake. A methanol injection systemmay be installed if required, and an ex- haust-driven turbo-supercharger, which isreadily detachable, is available. A rocket booster system (employing concentratedhydrogen peroxide fuel) can also be supplied. Transmission is via a primary gearboxat the starboard end of the engine crank- shaft, an intermediate shaft, and a secon-dary gearbox mounted centrally above the engine and attached to the fuselage centre-section. The secondary gearbox supports the main rotor shaft. A centrifugal clutchis incorporated in the primary gearbox. This can be overridden by a manual con-trol to enable the engine to be run up independently of the rotor if required. Thetail rotor is driven from the secondary gearbox through shafting and two sub-sidiary gearboxes. Each of the main rotor blades consistsof a wooden secondary structure bonded to a steel tubular spar, the whole beingcovered with fabric. The leading edge is plywood covered. The three blades maybe folded back parallel to, and supported by, the rear fuselage. The two-bladed tailrotor is of "improved wood" construction. O Rotor diam., 32ft; overall length (bladesfolded), 28ft Sin; gross weight, 2,200 lb; max. speed, 104 m.p.h.; cruising speed, 100 m.p.h.;max. endurance (normal tankage), 3 hr; service ceiling, 12,800ft; max. rate of climb, 1,150ft/min; hovering ceiling (with ground effect), 5,500ft; hovering ceiling (free air), 2,500ft. B.531 This is the Saunders-Roe desig-nation for a new helicopter, which can loosely be described as a scaled-up Skeeter.Seating five, the B.531 will be powered by a Blackburn-Turbomeca Turmo free-tur-bine unit of some 450 s.h.p. Development is well advanced and the first exampleshould fly at the S.B.A.C. display in September.
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