I'm a massive fan of the Rotodyne. I cannot believe it was cancelled and forgotten about. Absolutely revolutionary and versatile. It was 40 years ahead of the V-22 Osprey and it could have been been used by the Navy and Army in many applications, where noise surely wasn't a major issue.
So few major obstacles to overcome. With today's materials and production methods, I don't know why this wouldn't be viable for mid-distance travel. It hit the magic 200mph for cryin' out loud and was very efficient on fuel.
the tipjets made them helluva noisy and the military saw no use for them combining this with newer quieter rotary wing designs could give it a new life, but "things that might have been" ....
A very interesting piece of aero-engineering from a time when it was exciting to be a young engineer with ideas. I think it was a design development with great potential but fell foul of marketing and noise abatement requirements. It would be interesting to see this resurrected as a study using modern methods and materials.
Yes why not.With all that is spent in rediculous fashion these days .The replacement for the uh1 is called" the defiant 1 "I believe ,capable of 370 mph!!
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson lived in the area, so would certainly have been aware of the Fairey Rotodyne. I have often wondered if it was the inspiration for Thunderbird 2!
- Post war England was a fantastically exciting time for aviation in England. - In many regards, England was in the forefront of experimental aircraft development. There were thousands of aeronautical designers, engineers and airframe builders left over from wartime production, and the various aviation institutions kept many😮😢 of them gainfully employed. It was a proud time for Great Britain. 🇬🇧
If you watch - Pit of Peril, Thunderbirds - you will see the helicopters does have quite a strong resemblance to this particularly the rotor head design.
What is astonishing is that Fairey was a minor company yet its final two projects were the Rotodyne and the year before the Delta Two which was the first aircraft to pass 1,000 mph World Speed Record taking off and landing as a true sortie under its own power.
@@drgeoffangel5422 The engineering wasn't that hot either... in terms of overall design performance both the Rotodyne and the FD.2 were disappointing failures. No one was interested in buying these aircraft that were more publicity stunts than practical designs.
My father was involved with Vertol Corp ( later Boeing/Vertol) for a similar aircraft for high speed commuting between Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. tt never took flight, due to the noise issue as well the amount of land needed for an operational commercial heliport, but I remember my Dad bought home some really neat artists renderings.
The sound of the tip jets was a big problem. 30odd years ago I spoke to an ex-Fairey engineer and he said that the noise was almost unbearable if you were near the prototype when it took off and when the tip jets were lit up to land. Politics also had a hand in killing the project
The tip jets noise, were an engineering problem, yes, but not unsolvable with some further development. The very first Boeing 707 airliner, were pure jets, and the take off noise unbearable. However they didn't just give it up, they worked harder to reduce the noise, but then again ,the whole project was given that chance, Rotodyne was not afforded that same chance!
@@DoktorBayerischeMotorenWerke "Britian was never a leader in aviation technology" I'd disagree with that. What about Jet-engines (leading to wide bodied commercial jet travel), Delta wing technology leading to Concorde, , VSTOL Jump jet. Think again.
@@lynnecromack4933 None of those things are British inventions... also Concorde was the biggest financial failure in commercial aviation history and led to the collapse of the entire UK aircraft industry..
One of the big missed oppertunities in aeronautics. If I remember correctly Jim Scofiled claimed in his book "Designing British Military Helicopters" that the Rotodyne project was actually sank by Rolls Royce pressing its engines forward in spite of the need for great additional costs for their integration into the airframe in spite of no real technical necessity existing. Just like it clouded up the development process of the P1154 supersonic Harrier by suggesting a rediculous crosslinked Spey driven layout. If you can't beat them just spoil their game through sabotage. Political and commercial desinterest and a lot of resistance from the airport industry did the rest. What would the world look like today with VTOL and without these big hubs and air bases? The only real argument, being the noise from the rotor tip exhausts, would certainly have been gotten under control by further refinement of the technology.
@@philipmartin708 It wasn't easy, and they probably didn't fully succeed at the time but I cannot imagine noise was the main reason the project was halted. Even when not being able to visit city centers themselves it would still have been a great solution when combined with near to city "hooverbusstops". And then there are the many military possibilities. It still puts the V22 Osprey to shame in many repects.
its insane .............to think that they didnt go on and use this gem imagine if all the engines fail ........it just floats down instead of falling out of the sky like a missile with everyone screaming 😱
The Rotodyne had her time, a few pieces of her still exist. She will take to the skies in a new form thanks to Jaunt Air Mobility in 2026. All the info is on their website
i always imagine these as fighting forrestfires, capabal of short takeof and landing in a small canal hundreds of miles from it´s target away if need be and fast and easy to maintain
Wow! Truly inspirational! It wasn't just Empire that we lost in 70 years, it was the edge in pretty much every inventive, computational or engineering venture! We let Japan/US make money from our our IT and technology and now Arm Holdings isn't even in British ownership. The Harrier II was built with US money and the Joint Strike Fighter took all the VSTOL lessons from the UK and Russian and made it a success! Please may we bring back some pride in engineering rather than idolising the media!
Goodness, we didn’t ‘lose’ the Empire, the people it actually and legally and morally belonged to, took it back. Read the room, it’s not a good look to celebrate the horrors of the British theft of nations and the millions of deaths it caused.
When I was a young boy I remember the Rotordine flying over our house near henley ,the noise was very loud , my mum used to say it was father Christmas flying around checking on children to see if they were behaving ! I used to think if it was father Christmas he should be a bit quieter as everyone can hear him coming!!! F
where do you get these films? do you have more of rotodyne? amazing aircraft i wish it was used today. alltough for most people it wouldnt change much in everyday lives anyway but atleast its interesting to see how technology progresses.
Could this vehicle compete in the market place today? Could it haul passengers at a profit? It seems like it's a very safe vehicle, and I would rather travel in one of these than in a Boeing death trap.
There's a certain childlike innocence to British engineering. Whereas in America, Russia, China, Germany, Japan, or what have you, they'd say "what do we need?" and try to figure out how to build it. In mid-20th century Britain, the tradition seems to have been to say "can we make this?" and try to figure out if it was useful later. Heck, even some of their successes are like that. One of the things about aircraft is that due to basic aerodynamics it's actually easier to make a beautiful aircraft than an ugly one. I have a theory that some engineers said "What's the ugliest we could make an airliner and still have it fly OK?" and they came up with the BAe 146.
The Rotodyne had a large, four-bladed rotor and two Napier Eland N.E.L.3 turboprops, one mounted under each of the fixed wings. The rotor blades were a symmetrical aerofoil around a load-bearing spar. The aerofoil was made of steel and light alloy because of centre of gravity concerns. Equally, the spar was formed from a thick machined steel block to the fore and a lighter thinner section formed from folded and riveted steel to the rear. The compressed air was channelled through three steel tubes within the blade. The tip-jet combustion chambers were composed of Nimonic 80, complete with liners that were made from Nimonic 75. For takeoff and landing, the rotor was driven by tip-jets. The air was produced by compressors driven through a clutch off the main engines. This was fed through ducting in the leading edge of the wings and up to the rotor head. Each engine supplied air for a pair of opposite rotors, the compressed air was mixed with fuel and burned. As a torqueless rotor system, no anti-torque correction system was required, though propeller pitch was controlled by the rudder pedals for low-speed yaw control. The propellers provided thrust for translational flight while the rotor autorotated. The cockpit controls included a cyclic and collective pitch lever, as in a conventional helicopter. The transition between helicopter and autogyro modes of flight would have taken place around 60 mph, (other sources state that this would have occurred around 110 knots, the transition would have been accomplished by extinguishing the tip-jets. During autogyro flight, up to half of the rotocraft's aerodynamic lift was provided by the wings, which also enabled it to attain higher speed.
@@supraed9026 ...not just Politics, but also "Religulous" (aka, Religion), it has had a greater impact on most societies 🤨 Anyway, other videos also mention, that the British Government was having economic issues at the time, and could no longer subsidize these types of projects. 🤔
The politics were definitely a factor... It was the politicians being influenced by anti Rotodyne lobbyists who probably made far more noise disturbances and for a much longer periods, than the tip jets could Ever produce for the brief Take-offs & landings... I'm sure various companies and elite people who were heavily invested in conventional helicopters had a LOT to do with these superior aircraft designs being canceled....
It took me a good while to work out how the heck it was spinning it's props without drifting forward while hovering. I forget feathering exists quite frequently.
The noise of the rotor tip jets was solved out but at the end of the day it was politics and funding…….wonderful aircraft though. A time when people dared to dream.
With modern modifications and technology , this is a far better , cheaper , multifunctional alternative to so called "modern" alternatives ... Why , why will both the civil and military market not take a chance and develop this wonderful machine ... Why ... ????😡
Replace much of this stainless steel with carbon fibre and aluminium alloys and the weight saving, and therefore performance, would be immense! Add modern engines and modern flight systems and this would be an amazing aircraft.
"A payload of up to 70 passengers". Yes maybe in 1950, but today it would probably be more like 45-50. In case nobody has noticed, the 2000's human is quite....ahem, more rotund! Brilliant design though.
Yes of course it was, and still is, excellent idea, however it was killed off, because we British, always kill off our best ideas. The British management, are exceptionally good at not seeing past the end of their noses! I am sure at the time when the project was cancelled, management came up with a plethora of reasons , why it should have been murdered, but, it was a very big mistake for British engineering, and just another shambolic ruination of a viable project, had the management the foresight, and the guts to see it through!
Yo, como muchos, ni hablo ni leo en inglés, por lo tanto bueno sería que este video estuviera traducido al español, o al menos, los subtítulos puestos en español que lo hablamos más de 700 millones de personas en todo el Mundo; por que hablado en inglés y con subtítulos en el mismo idioma, es un "diálogo para besugos". ¿Los angloparlantes sois besugos?
Right at the end, the Rotodyne landing in front of a manor house nearly rips the trees right out of the ground! Hard to see how such a craft would be approved for city centre/downtown landings or takeoffs.
![The Giant Airliner With Cabins In Its Wings | Junkers G38 [Aircraft Overview #19]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5uFNOtsucKE/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm a massive fan of the Rotodyne. I cannot believe it was cancelled and forgotten about. Absolutely revolutionary and versatile. It was 40 years ahead of the V-22 Osprey and it could have been been used by the Navy and Army in many applications, where noise surely wasn't a major issue.
Could probably attach an f35 fan shaft for the main rotor and some new technology it would still be a winner
@@Sterlingjob Indeed but not for civil use due to noise constraints !
@@sichere hence using an f35 fan drive
Was the noise from the rotors or the jet engines?
@@michaelpound4738 The rockets on the rotors!!
So few major obstacles to overcome. With today's materials and production methods, I don't know why this wouldn't be viable for mid-distance travel. It hit the magic 200mph for cryin' out loud and was very efficient on fuel.
Never realized it was tip jet powered,, I figured the props performed the counter torque, but it didn't require any
the tipjets made them helluva noisy and the military saw no use for them
combining this with newer quieter rotary wing designs could give it a new life, but "things that might have been" ....
A very interesting piece of aero-engineering from a time when it was exciting to be a young engineer with ideas.
I think it was a design development with great potential but fell foul of marketing and noise abatement requirements.
It would be interesting to see this resurrected as a study using modern methods and materials.
Yes why not.With all that is spent in rediculous fashion these days .The replacement for the uh1 is called" the defiant 1 "I believe ,capable of 370 mph!!
Amazing, like something out of a Gerry Anderson series. There was no shortage of ideas back then, when anything seemed possible.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson lived in the area, so would certainly have been aware of the Fairey Rotodyne. I have often wondered if it was the inspiration for Thunderbird 2!
- Post war England was a fantastically exciting time for aviation in England. - In many regards, England was in the forefront of experimental aircraft development. There were thousands of aeronautical designers, engineers and airframe builders left over from wartime production, and the various aviation institutions kept many😮😢 of them gainfully employed. It was a proud time for Great Britain. 🇬🇧
If you watch - Pit of Peril, Thunderbirds - you will see the helicopters does have quite a strong resemblance to this particularly the rotor head design.
One of the best flying machine ......
Wish it sees the light of the day.. wonderful concept...
We need this...
What is astonishing is that Fairey was a minor company yet its final two projects were the Rotodyne and the year before the Delta Two which was the first aircraft to pass 1,000 mph World Speed Record taking off and landing as a true sortie under its own power.
In colloquial English, " a shit hot engineering company, led by blind donkeys"
@@drgeoffangel5422 The engineering wasn't that hot either... in terms of overall design performance both the Rotodyne and the FD.2 were disappointing failures. No one was interested in buying these aircraft that were more publicity stunts than practical designs.
My father was involved with Vertol Corp ( later Boeing/Vertol) for a similar aircraft for high speed commuting between Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. tt never took flight, due to the noise issue as well the amount of land needed for an operational commercial heliport, but I remember my Dad bought home some really neat artists renderings.
A shame this was cancelled. It had so much potential.
The sound of the tip jets was a big problem. 30odd years ago I spoke to an ex-Fairey engineer and he said that the noise was almost unbearable if you were near the prototype when it took off and when
the tip jets were lit up to land.
Politics also had a hand in killing the project
The tip jets noise, were an engineering problem, yes, but not unsolvable with some further development. The very first Boeing 707 airliner, were pure jets, and the take off noise unbearable. However they didn't just give it up, they worked harder to reduce the noise, but then again ,the whole project was given that chance, Rotodyne was not afforded that same chance!
Decades ahead of its time, if they had solved the noise issue it would have gone into production.
They could have , given time!
The US Osprey today is nt much quieter, than the Rotodyne was.
Cant believe this design is 70 years old. We were once on our game with aviation.
Britian was never a leader in aviation technology... it lagged years behind and wasted resources on white elephants like this.
@@DoktorBayerischeMotorenWerke "Britian was never a leader in aviation technology" I'd disagree with that. What about Jet-engines (leading to wide bodied commercial jet travel), Delta wing technology leading to Concorde, , VSTOL Jump jet. Think again.
@@lynnecromack4933 None of those things are British inventions... also Concorde was the biggest financial failure in commercial aviation history and led to the collapse of the entire UK aircraft industry..
One of the big missed oppertunities in aeronautics. If I remember correctly Jim Scofiled claimed in his book "Designing British Military Helicopters" that the Rotodyne project was actually sank by Rolls Royce pressing its engines forward in spite of the need for great additional costs for their integration into the airframe in spite of no real technical necessity existing. Just like it clouded up the development process of the P1154 supersonic Harrier by suggesting a rediculous crosslinked Spey driven layout. If you can't beat them just spoil their game through sabotage. Political and commercial desinterest and a lot of resistance from the airport industry did the rest. What would the world look like today with VTOL and without these big hubs and air bases? The only real argument, being the noise from the rotor tip exhausts, would certainly have been gotten under control by further refinement of the technology.
Regarding your last statement, Like how? They tried a variety of tip nozzle designs to get the noise down.
@@philipmartin708 It wasn't easy, and they probably didn't fully succeed at the time but I cannot imagine noise was the main reason the project was halted. Even when not being able to visit city centers themselves it would still have been a great solution when combined with near to city "hooverbusstops". And then there are the many military possibilities. It still puts the V22 Osprey to shame in many repects.
So much research went into this.Never realized just how much....
8 Minutes in that looks like Keogh Barracks in Ashvale where it landed on the Drill Square. Did my basic training there.
I want to see this thing make a comeback. It's quite possibly the greatest aircraft ever designed
Why? it was an unmitigated failure.
its insane .............to think that they didnt go on and use this gem
imagine if all the engines fail ........it just floats down instead of falling out of the sky like a missile with everyone screaming 😱
Yes you are right, it was a gyrocopter, and they fail to safe, ie they come down softly!
I seriously hope it will be brought back.
The Rotodyne had her time, a few pieces of her still exist. She will take to the skies in a new form thanks to Jaunt Air Mobility in 2026. All the info is on their website
i always imagine these as fighting forrestfires, capabal of short takeof and landing in a small canal hundreds of miles from it´s target away if need be and fast and easy to maintain
Wow! Truly inspirational! It wasn't just Empire that we lost in 70 years, it was the edge in pretty much every inventive, computational or engineering venture! We let Japan/US make money from our our IT and technology and now Arm Holdings isn't even in British ownership. The Harrier II was built with US money and the Joint Strike Fighter took all the VSTOL lessons from the UK and Russian and made it a success! Please may we bring back some pride in engineering rather than idolising the media!
Goodness, we didn’t ‘lose’ the Empire, the people it actually and legally and morally belonged to, took it back. Read the room, it’s not a good look to celebrate the horrors of the British theft of nations and the millions of deaths it caused.
After WW2 period there was a Golden Age of Aviation indeed which ended up maybe in 2000's.
Looks like stable master piece in the history ..
Fascinating.
i wonder if anyone has tried modern noise canceling technology on the tip jets..
When I was a young boy I remember the Rotordine flying over our house near henley ,the noise was very loud , my mum used to say it was father Christmas flying around checking on children to see if they were behaving ! I used to think if it was father Christmas he should be a bit quieter as everyone can hear him coming!!! F
Much worse is that a piece of the prototype and the wind tunnel model exists.
Would’ve been great if they just kept the whole aircraft in the museum
Again we are talking about penny pinching poor England!
where do you get these films? do you have more of rotodyne? amazing aircraft i wish it was used today. alltough for most people it wouldnt change much in everyday lives anyway but atleast its interesting to see how technology progresses.
Fascinating 👍🏻
I didn't think ground resonance would occur with a tip jet powered rotor.
Could this vehicle compete in the market place today? Could it haul passengers at a profit? It seems like it's a very safe vehicle, and I would rather travel in one of these than in a Boeing death trap.
Wait, what? There are many more dangerous ways to travel than in a vehicle bearing the Boeing moniker. Ford for example.
My dad worked there from 1953 to 1967. He started as an understudy weight engineer.
Glad you enjoyed the video, thanks for watching
There's a certain childlike innocence to British engineering. Whereas in America, Russia, China, Germany, Japan, or what have you, they'd say "what do we need?" and try to figure out how to build it. In mid-20th century Britain, the tradition seems to have been to say "can we make this?" and try to figure out if it was useful later.
Heck, even some of their successes are like that. One of the things about aircraft is that due to basic aerodynamics it's actually easier to make a beautiful aircraft than an ugly one. I have a theory that some engineers said "What's the ugliest we could make an airliner and still have it fly OK?" and they came up with the BAe 146.
Don't you try and steal that honour from the Shorts Skyvan
This was in my book
I know that the Rotodyne would have so cool if it would have survived. It's just that when I see it, I think of Austin Powers and the Thunderbirds.
Its like Gamera the flying turtle. I like turtles 🐢
I bet Gerry Anderson loved it.
How did the tip jets work?
The Rotodyne had a large, four-bladed rotor and two Napier Eland N.E.L.3 turboprops, one mounted under each of the fixed wings. The rotor blades were a symmetrical aerofoil around a load-bearing spar. The aerofoil was made of steel and light alloy because of centre of gravity concerns. Equally, the spar was formed from a thick machined steel block to the fore and a lighter thinner section formed from folded and riveted steel to the rear. The compressed air was channelled through three steel tubes within the blade. The tip-jet combustion chambers were composed of Nimonic 80, complete with liners that were made from Nimonic 75.
For takeoff and landing, the rotor was driven by tip-jets. The air was produced by compressors driven through a clutch off the main engines. This was fed through ducting in the leading edge of the wings and up to the rotor head. Each engine supplied air for a pair of opposite rotors, the compressed air was mixed with fuel and burned. As a torqueless rotor system, no anti-torque correction system was required, though propeller pitch was controlled by the rudder pedals for low-speed yaw control. The propellers provided thrust for translational flight while the rotor autorotated. The cockpit controls included a cyclic and collective pitch lever, as in a conventional helicopter.
The transition between helicopter and autogyro modes of flight would have taken place around 60 mph, (other sources state that this would have occurred around 110 knots, the transition would have been accomplished by extinguishing the tip-jets. During autogyro flight, up to half of the rotocraft's aerodynamic lift was provided by the wings, which also enabled it to attain higher speed.
Great airplane. It was cancelled because of mainly the noise problem of the tip jets and politics at the time.
Yeah POLITIC$$$$$$$$$$$$
It’s always a case of the politics being noisier than the engines ☹️
Yeah sometimes politics sucks and prevent humanity from advancing technology
@@supraed9026 ...not just Politics, but also "Religulous" (aka, Religion), it has had a greater impact on most societies 🤨
Anyway, other videos also mention, that the British Government was having economic issues at the time, and could no longer subsidize these types of projects. 🤔
The politics were definitely a factor... It was the politicians being influenced by anti Rotodyne lobbyists who probably made far more noise disturbances and for a much longer periods, than the tip jets could Ever produce for the brief Take-offs & landings... I'm sure various companies and elite people who were heavily invested in conventional helicopters had a LOT to do with these superior aircraft designs being canceled....
This along with the ekraniplan are some of the greatest missed opportunities for transportation ihop
It took me a good while to work out how the heck it was spinning it's props without drifting forward while hovering. I forget feathering exists quite frequently.
The noise of the rotor tip jets was solved out but at the end of the day it was politics and funding…….wonderful aircraft though. A time when people dared to dream.
Thank God for SABRE - Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine technology! At least that's still exciting UK tech! We're still good at engines! 😉
I hope HAL will make such kind of helicopters for India.
Why is there no tail rotor?
It's tip-jet powered...
just google it. :)
With modern modifications and technology , this is a far better , cheaper , multifunctional alternative to so called "modern" alternatives ... Why , why will both the civil and military market not take a chance and develop this wonderful machine ... Why ... ????😡
The british abandoned this master piece due to noise. The noise was mainly due to compressed air. A mechanically rotating fan would have fixed it!
What...? I can't hear you. 👂
A pay load of up-to seventy 1960s passengers .
This thing was very noisy but that's not how it failed
Just fit modern micro turbines to tips.
Give me two
It is a SHAME this aircraft did not going to production.
Not really.
Where did Fairey, not really a big co, get funds or funding to RnD such an aircraft?
Replace much of this stainless steel with carbon fibre and aluminium alloys and the weight saving, and therefore performance, would be immense! Add modern engines and modern flight systems and this would be an amazing aircraft.
Not really.
The loudest aircraft ever
Louder than the Thunderscreech? I haven't heard any of these irl.
Lol. No. It wasn't much noisier than any other helicopter and a noise reduction programme was well under way.
@@awatt jim Winchester
"A payload of up to 70 passengers". Yes maybe in 1950, but today it would probably be more like 45-50. In case nobody has noticed, the 2000's human is quite....ahem, more rotund! Brilliant design though.
A very interesting design, but unfortunately a completely dead-end concept that went nowhere.
show
Yes of course it was, and still is, excellent idea, however it was killed off, because we British, always kill off our best ideas. The British management, are exceptionally good at not seeing past the end of their noses! I am sure at the time when the project was cancelled, management came up with a plethora of reasons , why it should have been murdered, but, it was a very big mistake for British engineering, and just another shambolic ruination of a viable project, had the management the foresight, and the guts to see it through!
Yo, como muchos, ni hablo ni leo en inglés, por lo tanto bueno sería que este video estuviera traducido al español, o al menos, los subtítulos puestos en español que lo hablamos más de 700 millones de personas en todo el Mundo; por que hablado en inglés y con subtítulos en el mismo idioma, es un "diálogo para besugos". ¿Los angloparlantes sois besugos?
Just add a moter...
(TO)Soytong?ตา...
Right at the end, the Rotodyne landing in front of a manor house nearly rips the trees right out of the ground! Hard to see how such a craft would be approved for city centre/downtown landings or takeoffs.
Have you ever seen a conventional helicopter takeoff or land?
Noise is Good
love fly xnavy seabee cargo billet it ?! xnavy wing use drug war in pass heilcoper
Except it didn't happen.
*This didn't age well...*