This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2018) |
Wagner Aerocar | |
---|---|
Role | |
National origin | Germany |
Manufacturer | Wagner |
Designer | Alfred Vogt |
First flight | 1965 |
Introduction | 1965 |
Developed from | HTM Skytrac |
Variants | HTM Skytrac |
The Wagner FJ-V3 Aerocar was a prototype 4-place flying automobile. The vehicle used counter-rotating rotor helicopter technology for flight.
The Aerocar was developed in the era of space-age futurism, and looked the part. It looked slightly like the Jetsons flying car, with a large bubble cockpit, tailfins, and disproportionately small wheels for a car. It was developed from the Rotocar III design which was based on the Sky-trac 3 helicopter. The helicopter used counter-rotating rotors. On ground propulsion to the wheels was through a hydraulic linkage to the engine. [1]
A prototype with the registration D-HAGU was completed and flown in 1965. [2] The Franklin 6AS-335-B engine was replaced with a 134lb, 420shp Turbomeca Oredon turbine engine with a front-mounted gearbox. The design was sold to Helikopter Technik München (HTM). HTM suspended development of the Aerocar in 1971.
General characteristics
Performance
A flying car or roadable aircraft is a type of vehicle which can function as both a personal car and an aircraft. As used here, this includes vehicles which drive as motorcycles when on the road. The term "flying car" is also sometimes used to include hovercars.
A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can hover, take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-wing aircraft and other hybrid aircraft with powered rotors such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and gyrodynes.
The MBB/Kawasaki BK 117 is a twin-engined medium utility–transport helicopter. It was jointly developed and manufactured by Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) of Germany and Kawasaki of Japan. MBB was later purchased by Daimler-Benz and eventually became a part of Eurocopter, which was later rebranded as Airbus Helicopters.
Aerocar International's Aerocar was an American roadable aircraft designed and built by Moulton Taylor in Longview, Washington in 1949. Although six examples were made, it never entered large-scale production. It is considered one of the first practical flying cars.
Piasecki Helicopter Corporation was a designer and manufacturer of helicopters located in Philadelphia and nearby Morton, Pennsylvania, in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Its founder, Frank Piasecki, was ousted from the company in 1956 and started a new company, Piasecki Aircraft. Piasecki Helicopter was renamed Vertol Corporation in early 1956. Vertol was acquired by Boeing in 1960 and renamed Boeing Vertol.
The Mil Mi-6, given the article number izdeliye 50 and company designation V-6, is a Soviet/Russian heavy transport helicopter that was designed by the Mil design bureau. It was built in large numbers for both military and civil roles and used to be the largest helicopter in production until Mil Mi-26 was put in production in 1980.
Coaxial rotors or coax rotors are a pair of helicopter rotors mounted one above the other on concentric shafts, with the same axis of rotation, but turning in opposite directions (contra-rotating). This rotor configuration is a feature of helicopters produced by the Russian Kamov helicopter design bureau.
A helicopter main rotor or rotor system is the combination of several rotary wings with a control system, that generates the aerodynamic lift force that supports the weight of the helicopter, and the thrust that counteracts aerodynamic drag in forward flight. Each main rotor is mounted on a vertical mast over the top of the helicopter, as opposed to a helicopter tail rotor, which connects through a combination of drive shaft(s) and gearboxes along the tail boom. The blade pitch is typically controlled by the pilot using the helicopter flight controls. Helicopters are one example of rotary-wing aircraft (rotorcraft). The name is derived from the Greek words helix, helik-, meaning spiral; and pteron meaning wing.
A quadcopter or quadrotor is a type of helicopter with four rotors.
A rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotary wings or rotor blades, which generate lift by rotating around a vertical mast. Several rotor blades mounted on a single mast are referred to as a rotor. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines a rotorcraft as "supported in flight by the reactions of the air on one or more rotors".
A convertiplane is defined by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale as an aircraft which uses rotor power for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and converts to fixed-wing lift in normal flight. In the US it is further classified as a sub-type of powered lift. In popular usage it sometimes includes any aircraft that converts in flight to change its method of obtaining lift.
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 attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft and many forms of STOL or STOVL aircraft cannot perform without runway.
The Sikorsky X2 is an experimental high-speed compound helicopter with coaxial rotors developed by Sikorsky Aircraft.
The Percival P.74 was a British experimental helicopter designed in the 1950s that was based on the use of tip-jet powered rotors. Although innovative, the tip-rotor concept literally failed to get off the ground in the P.74, doomed by its inadequate power source. Rather than being modified, the P.74 was towed off the airfield and scrapped.
The HTM Skytrac was a light utility helicopter developed in Germany in the 1960s and 70s. A later four-seat version was known as the Skyrider. Despite achieving certification from the German aviation authorities and firm orders from customers, the Skytrac was never produced in series.
The Aerial Reconfigurable Embedded System (ARES) was a concept for an unmanned VTOL flight module that can transport various payloads. The concept started as the TX (Transformer) in 2009 for a terrain-independent transportation system centered on a ground vehicle that could be configured into a VTOL air vehicle and carry four troops. ARES' primary function was the same as TX, to use flight to avoid ground-based transportation threats like ambushes and IEDs for units that don't have helicopters for those missions. It was to be powered by twin tilting ducted fans and have its own power system, fuel, digital flight controls, and remote command-and-control interfaces. The flight module would have different detachable mission modules for specific purposes including cargo delivery, CASEVAC, and ISR. Up to 3,000 lb (1,400 kg) of payload would be carried by a module.
The Convair Model 116 ConvAirCar was a prototype roadable aircraft that was intended to exploit the post-war aviation market. The vehicle was further developed into the Convair Model 118, but neither type achieved production status.
The Berliner Helicopter was a series of experimental helicopters built by Henry Berliner between 1922 and 1925. The helicopters had only limited controllability but were the most significant step forward in helicopter design in the US, until the production of the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300 helicopter in 1940. The 1922 flights of the Berliner and the de Bothezat H1 were the first by manned helicopters.
A powered aircraft is an aircraft that uses onboard propulsion with mechanical power generated by an aircraft engine of some kind.
Krossblade Aerospace Systems is an aviation company founded in 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. The company is known for developing a 5-seat hybrid, vertical take-off and landing, VTOL concept, SkyCruiser, and for its drone/UAV prototype, SkyProwler. Both aircraft employ the switchblade transformation mechanism to transform from a multirotor aircraft for vertical take-off and landing, to a pure winged aircraft, for rapid and efficient cruise.