The Pawnee Warrior was an American

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 ...

that was designed and produced by

Pawnee Aviation Pawnee Aviation was an American aircraft manufacturer initially based in Longmont, Colorado and later in McCook, Nebraska. The company was founded in the mid-1990s by Ron Willocks and specialized in the design and manufacture of helicopters in ...

Longmont, Colorado Longmont is a home rule municipality located in Boulder and Weld counties, Colorado, United States. Its population was 98,885 . Longmont is located northeast of the county seat of Boulder. It is named after Longs Peak, a prominent mountain th ...

. 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 327. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998.

Design and development

The Warrior was designed to comply with the US ''Experimental - Amateur-built'' aircraft rules. It featured a single diameter two-bladed main rotor, a two-bladed tail rotor, both made from single metal

extrusion Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross section (geometry), cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a Die (manufacturing), die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing pro ...

s. The kit's drive components were intended to be supplied complete and ready to install. The aircraft had a single-seat open cockpit without a windshield and skid-type

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for taxiing, takeoff or landing. For aircraft, it is generally needed for all three of these. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, s ...

. A cockpit enclosure was optional. The standard engine used was a 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 of the piston, one up and one down, in one revolution of the crankshaft in contrast to a four-stroke engine which re ...

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 powerplant. The aircraft

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

was made from

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

and

aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

tubing and supplied in three major bolt-together sub-assemblies. It had an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload for the pilot and baggage was . The manufacturer estimated the construction time from the planned assembly kit as 80 hours. The company said "the Warrior was used sa proof of concept platform to develop new models" and was followed by the two place

Pawnee Chief The Pawnee Chief is an American helicopter that was designed and produced by Pawnee Aviation of Longmont, Colorado and later McCook, Nebraska. It was first flown in December 2005. Now out of production, when it was available the aircraft was su ...

Operational history

By 1998 the company reported that one aircraft had been completed and was flying. By April 2015 no examples were

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 a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

and it is likely that no examples exist any more.

Specifications (Warrior)

References

{{Pawnee Aviation aircraft

Warrior A warrior is a guardian specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal society, tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracy, social class, class, or caste. History ...

1990s United States sport aircraft 1990s United States helicopters Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined piston helicopters

Design and development

Operational history

Specifications (Warrior)

See also

References