Rocket Assisted Rotors
 

Interesting video and concept. I’m not sure I’d want a couple of hundred litres of hydrogen peroxide spinning above my head. Guess that might be why the idea never took off…

Didn’t the Rotodyne have that?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Rotodyne

Tip Rocket, Tip Jet
 

The Rotordyne had rotor tip ram jet thrusters fed fuel along the blades. The Hughes H 17 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_XH-17) used tip jets that were fed air from engines on the fuselage. I think the Rotordyne was the first machine to fly with ram jet tip thrusters, the second was probably the Dutch single rotor blade helicopter (!) the NHI H-3 Kolibrie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHI_H-3_Kolibrie) which was relatively successful and flew in the late 1950s. Seated in that picture in Wikipedia is Rene Van Der Harten, a founder of KLM Nordzee, a personal friend and one heck of a pilot. It takes lots of courage to strap yourself into a one-bladed tip jet helicopter in the 1950's!

All these machines had no torque and so no anti-torque devices. I would suppose they would fly quite similarly. They were all reportedly able to extremely efficiently turn fuel into noise.

The interesting bit I found was that the rockets were only to supplement a regular engine for high power ops or to extend auto range. The idea must be redundant with turbine engines with high power to weight but still its an interesting concept. Im not sure hydrogen peroxide would be the safest in an accident or under fire….


Doesn’t the Rotordyne use the jet thrusters as the primary thrust?

Your friend certainly must have been very brave to fly a one bladed helicopter Nick, and with a new propulsion system!

People who were around at the time told a story that a leak developed when no one was around which consumed most of the aircraft except for the resulting rusty steel. Don't know if it is true but a lot of things were tried back then that would make you shiver.

I'm guessing the most successful tip thrust driven aircraft was the Djinn - 178 built: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCASO_SO.1221_Djinn

There used to be one by the main gate at the Eurocopter factory in Marignane

Being pedantic I know, but it was, of course, the Fairey RotOdyne, not the RotoRdyne....;)

Even by today's standards it had a really good gross weight to basic weight ratio.

Thrust Drive System
 

Here is something more contemporary: Thrust Drive System Announcing Game Changing Helicopter Drive System

Picture​

JATO for rotary wing!
Fascinating...

That is a good way to look at it. Makes one wonder if that is where they got the idea.

Possibly from Hero’s aeolipile?

See also (Hunting) Percival P.74
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_P.74