I'm not a chopper pilot, though I wish I was, indeed no kind of a pilot at all - an engineer, who has found this thread to be very interesting indeed. The current question of whether the X2 is a 'proper' helicopter and relative speeds etc., reminded me of the machine I saw at Farnborough all those years ago. It
seemed like a good idea at the time, but it obviously wasn't.
From what I remember, the Rotodyne was an autogyro? I know it used engine bleed gas for the tip 'jets' (?) and I vaguely remember reading something about 'afterburning' the bleed gas in the tip pods to provide
something. But that would defeat the autogyro principle would it not?
In any event, does anyone remember how fast the Rotodyne was, what with those big old Dart's pulling it along. I know it was damn noisy!
Roger.