The Fairey Jet Gyrodyne is a British experimental

compound gyroplane A gyrodyne is a type of VTOL aircraft with a helicopter rotor-like system that is driven by its engine for takeoff and landing only, and includes one or more conventional propeller or jet engines to provide forward thrust during cruising flight ...

built by the

Fairey Aviation Company The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel and RAF Ringway in Cheshire. Notable for the design of a number of important military a ...

that incorporated

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 ...

gyrodyne A gyrodyne is a type of VTOL aircraft with a helicopter rotor-like system that is driven by its engine for takeoff and landing only, and includes one or more conventional propeller or jet engines to provide forward thrust during cruising fli ...

and autogyro characteristics. The Jet Gyrodyne was the subject of a

Ministry of Supply The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. A separate ministry, however, was responsible for airc ...

(MoS) research contract to gather data for the follow-up design, the Rotodyne.

Design and development

The Jet Gyrodyne was a modification of the second prototype FB-1 Gyrodyne aircraft registered ''G-AJJP''. The Jet Gyrodyne was built specifically to develop the pressure-jet rotor drive system and operational procedures used on the later Rotodyne. The Jet Gyrodyne utilised the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

, undercarriage and engine of the FB-1 Gyrodyne. The

Alvis Leonides The Alvis Leonides was a British air-cooled nine-cylinder radial aero engine first developed by Alvis Car and Engineering Company in 1936. Design and development Development of the nine-cylinder engine was led by Capt. George Thomas Smith-Cla ...

nine-cylinder

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ...

was situated in the middle of the fuselage and drove a pusher propeller at the tip of each stub wing and two

Rolls-Royce Merlin The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled V-12 piston aero engine of 27-litres (1,650 cu in) capacity. Rolls-Royce designed the engine and first ran it in 1933 as a private venture. Initially known as the PV-12, it was late ...

engine

supercharger In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced indu ...

s. The original three-blade tilting hub rotor system was replaced by a two-blade

rotor Rotor may refer to: Science and technology Engineering * Rotor (electric), the non-stationary part of an alternator or electric motor, operating with a stationary element so called the stator *Helicopter rotor, the rotary wing(s) of a rotorcraft ...

controlled with swashplate-actuated cyclic and collective pitch controls. An

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third e ...

provided the necessary stabilization about the pitch and yaw axes. For takeoff, landing, and low-speed flight, the rotor was driven by air delivered by the superchargers and burnt with fuel in blade-tip mounted pressure-jets. This zero-torque rotor drive did not require a compensating anti-torque system, though the collective pitch of the wingtip-mounted propellers was controlled by the

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adve ...

pedals to provide yaw control. As airspeed was gained, the rotor drive system was shut down, allowing the rotor to autorotate while the propellers provided the necessary thrust. For low-speed flight and landing, the rotor drive system was restarted to provide hovering capability.

Operational history

Tethered flights at White Waltham were followed by the first free flight in January 1954, but a full transition from helicopter to autogyro flight was not achieved until March 1955, piloted by John N. Dennis. System proving continued and by September 1956, 190 transitions and 140 autorotative landings had been completed. Development of inflight rotor drive restart procedure resulted in several power-off autorotational landings until the method was perfected. The Jet Gyrodyne was underpowered and could carry sufficient fuel for only 15 minutes of flight; on occasion external fuel tanks were carried to increase endurance. The Jet Gyrodyne was retired once ground testing of the Rotodyne rotor drive system commenced.

Aircraft on display

Although scheduled for scrapping in 1961, the Jet Gyrodyne (

serial number A serial number is a unique identifier assigned incrementally or sequentially to an item, to ''uniquely'' identify it. Serial numbers need not be strictly numerical. They may contain letters and other typographical symbols, or may consist enti ...

''XD759'' later ''XJ389'') survived and today is displayed at the Museum of Berkshire Aviation, on loan from the

RAF Museum The Royal Air Force Museum is a museum dedicated to the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom. The museum is a non-departmental public body of the Ministry of Defence and is a registered charity. The museum is split into two separate sites: * Ro ...

collection.

Specifications (Jet Gyrodyne)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Charnov, Dr. Bruce H
"The Fairey Rotodyne: An Idea Whose Time Has Come – Again?"
(Based on Charnov, Dr. Bruce H. ''From Autogiro to Gyroplane: The Amazing Survival of an Aviation Technology''. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 2003. .) Retrieved: 18 May 2007. * Green, William and Gerald Pollinger. ''The Observer's Book of Aircraft'' 1958 edition. London: Fredrick Warne & Co. Ltd., 1958. * Taylor, H.A. ''Fairey Aircraft since 1915''. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1974. . * Winchester, Jim, ed. "Fairey Rotodyne." ''Concept Aircraft'' (The Aviation Factfile). Rochester, Kent, UK: Grange Books plc, 2005. .

External links

Museum of Berkshire Aviation website
{{Gyrodyne 1950s British experimental aircraft

Jet Gyrodyne The Fairey Jet Gyrodyne is a British experimental compound gyroplane built by the Fairey Aviation Company that incorporated helicopter, gyrodyne and autogyro characteristics. The Jet Gyrodyne was the subject of a Ministry of Supply (MoS) resea ...

Gyrodynes Tipjet-powered helicopters Single-engined twin-prop pusher aircraft Mid-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1954