TRICOPTER SKYHOOK (Apr, 1957)
TRICOPTER SKYHOOK
It’s as simple as an ox yoke and it serves a very similar purpose.
By Frank Tinsley
WHEN a heavy hauling job comes up the idea has always been “Put in more horses.” Now, Raymond A. Young, an ex-Navy aeronautical engineer, has made it possible to harness helicopters in teams. His harness, as uncomplicated as an ox yoke, is a tubular framework that holds the working whirlybirds far enough apart to give them rotor room.
Various adaptations of Young’s basic idea may be used. The one illustrated is a tricopter harness consisting of three girders hinged to a central vertical hoist and braced in a rigid triangle by steel cables. Above the outer end of each girder is a universal coupling which attaches to the bottom of a helicopter with a quick release fastening. Each of the machines is separately flown but all follow the commands of a chief pilot, given over interphones. Young’s multi-copter harness can pick up bridge sections, ferry vehicles and equipment, emplace artillery in otherwise inaccessible positions—using standard copters instead of expensive specialized equipment.
I recall seeing a system like this on some documentary. One of the cables or arms failed, sending the whole mess to the ground.
Flying one chopper is hard enough with a load; coordinating three seems impossible.
I’ve seen those pictures too but even if it did work no three helicopters would be able to lift something as heavy as a tank.
It looks like the three Bf110 Zerstorer towing the Me321
Sandglass Patrol: Damn, you beat me to it! I was totally going to say that.
Charlie, once we wrote about ‘aeronautics fashions’, because they are always traying the same things, or re-discovering old concepts. Here we discovered the flying submarine, or de submergible plane. Now DARPA is traying it again. This entry, the 3 ‘chopers’ and the three Zerstorers remembered us that entry in our blog, http://sandglasspatrol….
What could possibly go wrong?
An insurgent’s dream… A chance to take out three helicopters and a tank with a single Stinger missile…
Also, just looked at the illustration again, and I’m trying to figure out why the Army would paint Air Force emblems on its tanks and helicopters?
Lightning – why AirForce marking on Army tanks and choppers? Maybe it’s because it was designed by a Navy engineer.
We have linked you
http://sandglasspatrol….
(It is in Spanish)