The cyclogyro, or cyclocopter, is an

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or by using the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in ...

configuration that uses a horizontal-axis cyclorotor as a rotor wing to provide lift and sometimes also propulsion and control. In principle, the cyclogyro is capable of vertical take off and landing and hovering performance like a

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

, while potentially benefiting from some of the advantages of a

fixed-wing aircraft A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air flying machine, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate lift caused by the aircraft's forward airspeed and the shape of the wings. Fixed-wing aircraft are dist ...

. The cyclogyro is distinct from the Flettner airplane which uses a cylindrical wing rotor to harness the

Magnus effect The Magnus effect is an observable phenomenon commonly associated with a spinning object moving through a fluid. The path of the spinning object is deflected in a manner not present when the object is not spinning. The deflection can be expl ...

Principles of operation

The cyclogyro wing resembles a

paddle wheel A paddle wheel is a form of waterwheel or impeller in which a number of paddles are set around the periphery of the wheel. It has several uses, of which some are: * Very low-lift water pumping, such as flooding paddy fields at no more than a ...

, with airfoil blades replacing the paddles. Like a

, the blade pitch (angle of attack) can be adjusted either collectively all together or cyclically as they move around the rotor's axis. In normal forward flight the blades are given a slight positive pitch at the upper and forward portions of their arc producing lift and, if powered, also forward thrust. They are given flat or negative pitch at the bottom, and are "flat" through the rest of the circle to produce little or no lift in other directions. Blade pitch can be adjusted to change the thrust profile, allowing the cyclogyro to travel in any direction without the need for separate control surfaces. Differential thrust between the two wings (one on either side of the fuselage) can be used to turn the aircraft around its vertical axis, although conventional tail surfaces may be used as well. Cyclogyro-Mechanics

History

Jonathan Edward Caldwell took out a patent on the cyclogyro which was granted in 1927, but he never followed it up. The Schroeder S1 of 1930 was a full-size prototype which used the cyclogyro for forward thrust only. Adolf Rohrbach of Germany designed a full VTOL version in 1933, which was later developed in the US and featured a tall streamlined fuselage to keep the wings clear of the ground. Another example was built by Rahn Aircraft in 1935, which used two large-chord rotary wings instead of a multi-blade wheel driven by a 240 hp supercharged

Wright Whirlwind The Wright Whirlwind was a family of air-cooled radial aircraft engines built by Wright Aeronautical (originally an independent company, later a division of Curtiss-Wright). The family began with nine-cylinder engines, and later expanded to incl ...

The cyclogyro has been revisited in the twenty-first century, as a possible configuration for

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controll ...

s.Development of a Cyclogyro-based Flying Robot with Variable Attack Angle Mechanisms
ieee.org

References

External links

* {{Commonscat-inline, Cyclogyro Rotorcraft

Principles of operation

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links