Researching my new book on MI(R) I came across reference to a shelved 1940 Helicopter project. Made by Weir's it was a five seater machine powered by Rolls Royce Kestral engine of 900H.P. top speed was 170mph and climb rate 1250 ft/min. A armoured single or twin seat version was envisaged for ground attack. There is mention in the document of a cinematographic record of the machines and their performance. 'The machines were not further developed and plans and components are at Cathcart near Glasgow - it would take ten months to complete them' Two other Weir made machines a 50HP single seater was capable of 67 mph and a two seater 200hp had a top speed of 97 mph examples of which were in the inventory of the Air Ministry
5 pages on Weir Autogyros and helicopters in "Flight" May 1944 here, Lots of technical stuff I dont understand but it seems the Test Bed(s) were twin rotor jobs with a rotor on an arm each side of the body This picture of a 1939 Weir W6 is from Aviastar All the World's Helicopters and Rotorcraft - the most complete helicopter collection in the world. Helicopters, autogyros, tilt-rotors, tilt-wings etc. Off to look at some more old helicopter type things now Noel
Two other Weir made machines a 50HP single seater was capable of 67 mph and a two seater 200hp had a top speed of 97 mph examples of which were in the inventory of the Air Ministry A pure helicopter with only 50 hp sounds like it would be pretty difficult to pull off. Like to read more about it though. Thanks, Dave Aha, I just read your follow up with attachment. An auto-gyro!
There's a thread on this in the 1940 section as it's mentioned in I Corps war diaries visiting France (1939 I think) - Diane even found a couple of video clips of it in Paris
This is the thread I was referring to: http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/1940/30302-what-rota-aircraft.html
http://www.criticalpast.com/stock-footage-video/sikorsky-Burma Sikorsky Burma. NACA Helicopter report 1920 - includes HP to weight to lift charts. http://naca.central.cranfield.ac.uk/reports/1920/naca-tn-4.pdf
Thanks Wills. If the technology and testing had been a little further along, many casualties could have been extracted from the jungle regions and lives saved. Mind you these craft would have been easy meat for patrolling enemy aircraft.
The original post with Illustration Shows what Looks like a Focke- Achgelis Fa 223 Drache http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Achgelis_Fa_223 Which was a scalled up Version of the Fa 266 Hornisse which first flew (Hovering tethered) in the summer of 1940. Flettner also produced heliopters and both constructors used two seperate Rotors, contra rotating, to stop gyration. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flettner_Fl_282 Regards Tom
Fa 223 Drache : http://www.criticalpast.com/products/search/?newSearch=1&sort_by=&sort_order=asc&q=Focke-Achgelis+Fa+223 Hubschrauber: http://www.luftarchiv.de/
