The cyclogyro, or cyclocopter, is an

aircraft An aircraft ( 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 the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

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 (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

, while potentially benefiting from some of the advantages of a

fixed-wing aircraft A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using aerodynamic lift. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft (in which a rotor mounted on a spinning shaft generate ...

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

Magnus effect The Magnus effect is a phenomenon that occurs when a spin (geometry), spinning Object (physics), object is moving through a fluid. A lift (force), lift force acts on the spinning object and its path may be deflected in a manner not present when ...

. The cyclogyro's cyclorotor is similar to a Voith Drive, which is a type of propeller used on some boats. They work in almost exactly the same way, except a Voith Drive can produce a force in any direction, whilst a cyclogyro is only designed to produce lift in upwards directions. The other main difference is that Voith Drives work underwater but cyclogyros work in air.

Principles of operation

The cyclogyro wing resembles a

paddle wheel A paddle is a handheld tool with an elongated handle and a flat, widened end (the ''blade'') used as a lever to apply force onto the bladed end. It most commonly describes a completely handheld tool used to propel a human-powered watercraft by p ...

, 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 in ...

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

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

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