The Bensen Mid-Jet (a pun on "Midget jet") was a small

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 attribut ...

developed by

Igor Bensen Igor Vasilevich Bensen (russian: И́горь Васи́льевич Бенсен; April 1, 1917 – February 10, 2000) was a Russian-American engineer. He founded Bensen Aircraft, a US company which produced a successful line of gyroglide ...

in the United States in the early 1950s in the hope of attracting the interest of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. It was a single-seat, open framework machine based on the B-5 rotor kite with small, gasoline- or fuel oil-burning

ramjet A ramjet, or athodyd (aero thermodynamic duct), is a form of airbreathing jet engine that uses the forward motion of the engine to produce thrust. Since it produces no thrust when stationary (no ram air) ramjet-powered vehicles require an a ...

s mounted as

tipjet A tip jet is a jet nozzle at the tip of some helicopter rotor blades, used to spin the rotor, much like a Catherine wheel firework. Tip jets replace the normal shaft drive and have the advantage of placing no torque on the airframe, thus not re ...

s on the rotor blades. Tests carried out in 1954 showed it to be able to lift four times its own weight and cruise at 75 mph (120 km/h).

Specifications

References

External links

Bensen Aircraft Foundation

Bensen Aircraft at Vortechonline.com
{{Bensen aircraft 1950s United States experimental aircraft 1950s United States helicopters Mid-Jet Ramjet-powered aircraft Tipjet-powered helicopters Aircraft first flown in 1953

Specifications

See also

References

External links