0823
The Way Things Might Have Been
The only two production helicopters in the early 40's were the Sikorsky R-4B and the Flettner FL-282B. The intermeshing Flettner outperformed the single rotor Sikorsky in most categories, including top speed. Today the single rotor is the pre-eminent configuration, whereas the intermeshing configuration is at the point of extinction. Why?
Charles Kaman took up the German intermeshing (synchropter) configuration
[Anton Flettner] and married it to the Italian servo-flap flight control [Corradino d'Ascanio]. It has been said that he attempted to develop the intermeshing helicopter using blade-root-pitch control, but found it unworkable. This is unusual in that the earlier Flettner FL-282B and the later Dick DeGraw Hummingbird both used blade-root-pitch control. One might assume that Charles Kaman, like most inventors, had an affinity for his own ideas.It would appear that if 50 years ago the, easier to fly, intermeshing configuration had been allowed to develop, unencumbered by the 'servo-flap' control, it might have been today's pre-eminent helicopter configuration.
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I am currently developing an ultralight intermeshing helicopter and one will definitely be build. Because of the cost of keeping it in the ultralight category there is no way that it could be a commercial success. My pleasure is derived from the designing, building and eventual flying of this craft.
This development information is open, for all to utilize, at the following web site. I hope that one or two others will see the advantages of this configuration and join me in building their own experimental synchropters.
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Publication: |
Date: |
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Homebuilt Rotorcraft |
September 2000 |
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Rotorcraft (PRA) |
Dec 2000 / Jan 2001 |