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Old 15th Oct 2008, 09:28
  #13 (permalink)  
BEagle
 
Join Date: May 1999
Location: Quite near 'An aerodrome somewhere in England'
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Not really. Whilst the Rotodyne could take off and land vertically, its principal mode was as an autogyro with free-wheeling rotor; thrust being derived from turboprops mounted on stub wings which also augmented lift. Bleed air from the turboprops was mixed with kerosene to power the main rotor's tip jets.

The Rotodyne could easily land 'conventionally' in autogyro mode if the tip jets failed to light, but needed a runway in order to do so.

All done with levers and pulleys, not a computer in sight.

A great shame that the size of the Rotodyne wasn't defined soon enough and its design frozen; apart from the tip jet noise (which was on the way to being solved), it was an aircraft well ahead of its time.
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