The Eagle's Perch was an American

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 ...

that was designed by the Nolan brothers and produced by Eagle's Perch Inc. of

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. Now out of production, when it was available the aircraft was supplied as a kit for amateur construction.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 322. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998.

Design and development

The design was intended to be a simplified helicopter. Constructed by two brothers with no prior aeronautical experience or skills it employed a unique coaxial, counter-rotating, fixed pitch rotor system with no collective control, but employed a

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 adverse yaw a ...

. To account for the fact that the aircraft could not

autorotate For fixed-wing aircraft, autorotation is the tendency of an aircraft in or near a stall to roll spontaneously to the right or left, leading to a spin (a state of continuous autorotation).Clancy, L.J., ''Aerodynamics'', Sections 16.48 and 16.49 ...

after a power failure, it was equipped with two engines and could hover on either one. A

ballistic parachute A ballistic parachute, ballistic reserve parachute, or emergency ballistic reserve parachute, is a parachute ejected from its casing by a small explosion, much like that used in an ejection seat. The advantage of the ballistic parachute over a c ...

was optional. The Eagle's Perch was designed to comply with the US ''Experimental - Amateur-built'' aircraft rules. The aircraft had a standard empty weight of . It featured two coaxial main rotors, a single-seat open cockpit without a windshield, skid-type

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Marti ...

and two twin-cylinder, air-cooled,

two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of t ...

dual-ignition Dual Ignition is a system for spark-ignition engines, whereby critical ignition components, such as spark plugs and magnetos, are duplicated. Dual ignition is most commonly employed on aero engines,Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, ...

Hirth 2706 The Hirth 2704 and 2706 are a family of in-line twin cylinder, two stroke, carburetted aircraft engines, with optional fuel injection, designed for use on ultralight aircraft and especially two seat ultralight trainers, single seat gyrocopte ...

engines. The aircraft

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 ...

was made from welded steel tubing. Its diameter two-bladed rotors were of a fixed pitch design. The aircraft had an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload for pilot and baggage was . The manufacturer estimated the construction time from the supplied kit to be 240 hours. The design was later developed into the

Phoenix Skyblazer The Phoenix Skyblazer is an American helicopter that was designed by the Nolan brothers and produced by Phoenix Rotorcraft of Fallston, Maryland and more recently Louisburg, North Carolina. When it was available the aircraft was supplied as a ...

Operational history

The design won ''Grand Champion Helicopter'' at the

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convention in 1994. By July 2014 no examples remained

registered Registered may refer to: * Registered mail, letters, packets or other postal documents considered valuable and in need of a chain of custody * Registered trademark symbol, symbol ® that provides notice that the preceding is a trademark or service ...

in the United States with the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

and it is unlikely any exist today, although one, the prototype, had been registered at one time.

Specifications (Eagle's Perch)

References

{{reflist Eagle's Perch 1990s United States sport aircraft 1990s United States helicopters Homebuilt aircraft Coaxial rotor helicopters Twin-engined piston helicopters

Design and development

Operational history

Specifications (Eagle's Perch)

See also

References