Helicopter with a steering wheel!

[Senior Pilot]

There's a thread over on Jet Blast, asking "Is there a helicopter in existence which uses a steering wheel? (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=307276)

Well, they've come up with one :eek: The Gazda Helicospeeder, built by Antoine Gazda, the inventor of the 20-mm rapid fire Oerlikon AA cannon. Designed by Hal Lemont. 1943-47. To quote one of the posts,

1. Control movement was as expected for pitch and roll, turning the wheel is left/right roll, pushing and pulling the wheel is pitch up/down. Collective up/down was done by vertically sliding the control up or down.

2. The little three bladed tail rotor seen in the picture had an additional use as a pusher prop when in cruise speed. Apparently the pilot had a lever which was connected to the g/b via a cable and when pulled it swiveled the gearbox aft thus turning the tail rotor into a pusher prop. The pivot mechanism was off a farm tractor.


http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p323995af78f68f20eceb392f1ca5a2e1/e86df05a.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/pd9cb3397fded2f38d6f59f5c26cf928f/e86de6ad.jpg


There's not much that hasn't been thought of before :ok:

[Flapping to Equity]

You beauuuty!!! That's it, I'm trading in the Exec!!
If someone will buy it.......:-(

[Graviman]

Wow! Now that is design i like.

I was thinking about this the other day, and came to the conclusion that the stick wins out because it keeps a hand free for the lever. Then again you could fit a Cessna style yoke with additional vertical movement. Might actually allow a comfortable seating position.

My mind boggles...

[HOSS 1]

While researching the history of old Sikorskys, one of the real old timers that had been there (Harry Hleva) relayed an interesting story.

While trying to set the helicopter speed record, the pilot of Sikorsky's S-52 found he was running out of lateral stick due to leg contact. Igor listened intently as the pilot explained the problem. Within the hour Igor had summoned one of his long time crew chiefs to "go to the attic and get a flying boat wheel". The mechanics worked into the evening and by the next morning the aircraft was ready for the next try. A wheel had been added to the top of the cyclic for roll control.

The S-52 went on to hold the helo speed record.

HOSS