New Type Gyro Plane Tested on Electric Rail Carriage (Jan, 1932)
New Type Gyro Plane Tested on Electric Rail Carriage
AS interesting as is the new type of gyro plane now undergoing exhaustive experiments in France, the method of testing is perhaps of even more interest.
The trial carriage is electrically driven and attains a speed of from 60 to 80 miles an hour on rails. By means of measuring instruments on the carriage, the wind pressure, lifting power, derivation of lift, and the stresses on various parts are registered.
The plane itself is of the conventional type, except for a pair of large propellers, which turn in opposite directions, mounted on a stub shaft above the plane. These propellers work by wind pressure.
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I’m still waiting for my autogyro. When are they ever going to finish testing these things?
Rick
Comment by rick — December 2, 2009 @ 3:27 pm
rick: Try looking http://www.americanautogyro.com/ or http://www.littlewingautogyro.com/ or http://www.kenwallisautogyro.com/
Comment by Firebrand38 — December 2, 2009 @ 4:11 pm
Thanks, Firebrand,
Interesting stuff. I particularly like the comment from http://www.littlewingautogyro.com :
“A zero airspeed, vertical landing is survivable for the occupant but not for the aircraft.”
Hmmm. Not too reassuring.
Rick
Comment by rick — December 2, 2009 @ 6:34 pm
rick: I don’t see why not, when a modern car crashes the occupants are supposed to survive but the car isn’t guaranteed to be drivable afterward, now is it?
Hmmmm?
Comment by Firebrand38 — December 2, 2009 @ 7:41 pm
I mean, if you prefer you can search for one that says “A zero airspeed, vertical landing is survivable for the aircraft but not for the occupant.” Reassured now? Hmmm?
Comment by Firebrand38 — December 2, 2009 @ 11:17 pm
If only the Wright Brothers had invented the wind tunnel also.
Wait. They did.
Comment by Repack Rider — December 2, 2009 @ 11:17 pm
I don’t think the Wright’s wind tunnel had much in the way of measuring stresses on various parts. It mostly measured vertical forces at various points on a model and at different airspeeds.
Comment by Toronto — December 3, 2009 @ 12:45 am
Repack Rider: The use of a track to test aerodynamics is still in use today at places like Holloman AFB, NM & Sandia Labs http://www.sandia.gov/vqsec/SON-ST.html if only they had wind tunnels. That’s right, they do.
Some things are measured better outside a wind tunnel as described in this pdf from 1968 http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/AD718664 (by the way, they had wind tunnels in 1968 too).
Comment by Firebrand38 — December 3, 2009 @ 1:18 am
And here’s the plane actually flying: http://scale-autogiro.spaces.l.....1017.entry
I the main page http://scale-autogiro.spaces.live.com there’s a lot of theory about autogyros, scale modelling, etc. in French.
Comment by Jari — December 3, 2009 @ 1:06 pm
Well you only live twice…..
Thank you James Bond
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrocopter
Comment by Tracy B — December 3, 2009 @ 3:46 pm