Aircraft

[Carruthers]

The Fairey Rotodyne was a 1950s British compound gyroplane designed and built by Fairey Aviation and intended for commercial and military applications.[2] A development of the earlier Gyrodyne, which had established a world helicopter speed record, the Rotodyne featured a tip jet-powered rotor that burned a mixture of fuel and compressed air bled from two wing-mounted Napier Eland turboprops. The rotor was driven for vertical takeoffs, landings and hovering, as well as low-speed translational flight, and autorotated during cruise flight with all engine power applied to two propellers.

One prototype was built. Although the Rotodyne was promising in concept and successful in trials, the programme was eventually cancelled. The termination has been attributed to the type failing to attract any commercial orders; this was in part due to concerns over the high levels of rotor tip jet noise generated inflight. Politics - the development was government funded - had also played a role in the lack of orders, which ultimately doomed the project.

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It could be said that the Rotodyne was years ahead of its time and with more development might have been a success.

The concept survives, albeit in a somewhat different form, in the V-22 Osprey.




Trivia time...

The Chairman of Fairey Aviation lived here in Carruthers Town when I was a kid.
I don't remember much about him but I do recall his big old Bassett Hound who would entertain himself by roaming about the town.
He could often be seen ambling down the High Street barking at nothing in particular.
He probably howled at the Moon as well. Lovely dog, he was.