History and Engineering.

[Margaret]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9633v6U0wo


The Fairey Rotodyne was a 1950s British compound gyroplane designed and built by Fairey Aviation and intended for commercial and military applications.[2] A development of the earlier Gyrodyne which had established a world helicopter speed record, the Rotodyne featured a tip-jet-powered rotor that burned a mixture of fuel and compressed air bled from two wing-mounted Napier Eland turboprops. The rotor was driven for vertical takeoffs, landings and hovering, as well as low-speed translational flight, and autorotated during cruise flight with all engine power applied to two propellers. Although promising in concept and successful in trials, the Rotodyne program was eventually cancelled when a combination of politics and lack of commercial orders arising from concerns over high levels of rotor tip-jet noise doomed the project.

[Lex]

Wow, that's really fascinating, Margaret!

[rebbonk]

It was never going to be a success. It was too noisy and relied on rocket motors on the rotor blades.

However, at that stage we did lead the world in aviation and we would still be there if it wasn't for our politicians giving everything away. Did you know that we actually gave the jet engine away?

[Margaret]

It was never going to be a success. It was too noisy and relied on rocket motors on the rotor blades.

However, at that stage we did lead the world in aviation and we would still be there if it wasn't for our politicians giving everything away. Did you know that we actually gave the jet engine away?


My husband informs me that Sir Frank Whittle from Coventry invented the turbojet engine. Who did we give it away to?

[rebbonk]

We sold engines to Russia on the condition that they only used them on commercial aircraft, they back engineered them and created their own copies.

As part of the deal to the USA entering the war, we let them have access to all our patents. That coupled with what they acquired from Germany allowed them to build their own jet engine. When we launched the DH Commet, the USA were about 10 years behind us in development. Problems with the Commet and government ineptitude (the Sandys report didn't help) allowed the USA to catch us up. History is littered with dirty tricks from the USA playing catch-up on aviation.

Did you know that Rover built jet engines? Rover were running a parallel development to Whittle. In the end, government decided to give everything to what became Rolls Royce. I believe the Rover experimental division eventually morphed into Noel Penny Turbines at Baginton. Incidentally, many Rover built turbines still exist. Many we're used as APU's on Vulcan aircraft (auxiliary power units) and on scrapping the Vulcan they were appropriated (many via Nev Martin's Phoenix Aviation) and sold on to the Middle East for pumping purposes.

Don't I know a lot of rubbish?

[rebbonk]

Incidentally, much of the development on getting jet engines into aircraft was carried out at a plant where I later worked (Bitteswell Aerodrome), but finding information is virtually impossible. It almost seems as if there is a deliberate attempt to airbrush Bitteswell out of the story.

[rebbonk]

Carrying on the theme..

The aw52g (a scale glider)

http://www.vicflintham.co.uk/content/post-war-research-aircraft-and-prototypes/aw52g.jpg


Which led to the aw52...

http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac6/A.W.52%20TS363.jpg

Stealth bomber anyone?

[Dun Scotus]

That is all very interesting an informative thanks.
It is pretty well know that the US systematically plundered British intellectual property rights during and after the war.
But to be fair, this country was in such a woeful state at that time, we simply would have gone under without US material assistance. The British Empire was in effect liquidated in 1945, and the US took over more or less global responsibilities for it. I myself can't really see how this could have been avoided.
Revisionist historians, like David Irving, make out that we could have done a deal with the Third Reich, but I just can't see that.

[Margaret]

Stealth bomber looks like something our of Thunderbirds.