While working for Douglas Aircraft Missiles and Space Division I worked on a consulting basis for Wallace O. Leonard company in Pasadena, California. I along with two colleagues designed the servos for the FH-1100 that was being proposed by Hiller for the LOH program for the US Army. Had Fairchild been successful in the competition my design would been on the helicopter. The design took two days and we did it in a small cottage overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Huntington Beach, CA.
The servo had a mechanical disconnect ala Sikorsky and everything in the design was directly from the Douglas Aircraft design manual. Several were built and they performed very well. The design requirements dictated high reliability but in event of any failure the servo would be sh!t canned.
Each servo contained a small accumulator, which predated the servos used on Aerospatial helicopters.
The OH-6 (OH-58) was chosen for the second production run even though the FH-1100 outperformed it. To keep Hiller in business the US Government contracted for FH-1100s, which were given to police forces of allies of the United States.
Note: Mechanical disconnect is the correct name for “Sloppy link”.
