XR-9 | |
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Role | Utility helicopter |
Manufacturer | Firestone Aircraft Company |
First flight | March 1946 |
Primary user | United States Army Air Forces |
Number built | 2 |
The Firestone XR-9, also known by the company designation Model 45, was a 1940s American experimental helicopter built by the Firestone Aircraft Company for the United States Army Air Forces. Only two (the military XR-9B and one civil example) were built.
Originally developed by G & A Aircraft with the co-operation of the United States Army Air Forces' Air Technical Service Command, the G & A Model 45B (designated XR-9Rotocycle by the Army) [1] was a design for a single-seat helicopter of pod-and-boom configuration. [2] It had a fixed tri-cycle landing gear and three-bladed main and tail rotors. Power would have been supplied by a 126 hp (94 kW) Avco Lycoming XO-290-5 engine. [3] The Model 45C (XR-9A) was the same helicopter with a two-bladed rotor. Neither of the two helicopters were built. G & A Aircraft was purchased by Firestone in 1943, [3] and was renamed the Firestone Aircraft Company in 1946. [4]
A revised two-seat design the revised Model 45C (or XR-9B) was built with a three-bladed main rotor and two-seat in tandem. The first aircraft procured by the Army Air Forces in 1946, [3] it was powered by an Avco Lycoming O-290-7 engine [3] and first flew in March of that year.
A civil version, the Model 45D was also built and flown, in anticipation of a postwar boom in aircraft sales. [3] This differed in having the two occupants side-by-side instead of tandem as in the 45C, and was equipped with a 150 horsepower (110 kW) Lycoming engine. [3] The prototype was demonstrated at the 1946 Cleveland National Air Races. [5] A four-seat Model 50, with twin tail rotors, was also projected, [3] but the predicted sales boom did not materialise, and Firestone closed its aircraft manufacturing division. [3]
The sole Model 45D is on display (without blades installed) at the United States Army Aviation Museum at Fort Novosel, Alabama.
Data from Jane's all the World's Aircraft 1947, [6] [7]
General characteristics
Performance
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