This video was made possible by
CuriosityStream. Watch thousands of high-quality documentaries and get
access to Nebula by using the link in the description. This is a Rotodyne.
And it might look like a helicopter and an airplane mashed together, but it's
neither. It's a lot more revolutionary. Because when it debuted over 60 years
ago, the Rotodyne was going to be a new form of mass transport. The quickest way
to move from one city center to the next. Landing on downtown rooftops and
heliports, but flying much faster, further and more economically than any
helicopter. And airlines were interested. But then, as the Rotodyne looked set to
revolutionize intercity transport, it just disappeared. To understand why this machine was so
revolutionary, consider that it doesn't work like a helicopter. A helicopter uses
engine power to spin a rotor blade, which forces air down to create lift.Tilting
the rotor is what allows the helicopter to move in a given direction. That's the
basic idea. But that's not how Rotodyne works. On a Rotodyne, the large rotor
isn't powered. It isn't even connected to a motor. Instead, as air passes naturally
through the rotor blades, it causes the rotor to spin around like a pinwheel. And
this creates lift. The Rotodyne still has wings and a pair of turboprops, much like
an airplane. But in forward flight, the un-powered spinning rotor lifts more than
half the aircraft's weight. With this unique design, the Rotodyne flew faster
than any helicopter of the era. And it was far more efficient. And even though
the rotor wasn't driven by a motor, the Rotodyne could still hover and take off
and land vertically just like any helicopter. That's because at the end of each
rotor blade were small tip jets. During takeoff and landing, fuel and compressed
air supplied by the turboprops would ignite to spin up the rotor. Once in
forward flight, the tip jets were shut off and the rotor would once again spin
freely. By 1959 the Rotodyne was attracting worldwide interest. Because
for one thing, it promised to revolutionize the way we traveled
between cities. In the 1950's and 60's, intercity air travel was on the rise. But
while a trip from New York to Boston by airplane might only take about an hour,
you'd also need to get to and from the airport. And in many congested cities,
that was beginning to take longer than the flight itself. One solution was to
use helicopters. In April, the new helicopter service is due to open from the top of the Pan-Am building. If the service does come about, you'll be taking off from the fourth highest building in New York. 59 storeys up. it's hoped that eventually the service will carry 5,000 passengers a day. 5,000 passengers who would otherwise be condemned to this. By the 1960's helicopter airlines had
cropped up in major American cities. Letting passengers and skip the traffic
by flying right over it. The problem was, none of them were actually making money.
Because helicopters were simply too inefficient, operating anywhere from 20
to 30 cents per seat mile. And the only way helicopter Airlines like New York
Airways could even exist was through government subsidies to offset
operational costs. But the Rotodyne was going to change all that, bringing costs
down to as little as 4 cents per seat mile, which would make helicopter
airlines profitable. And the Rotodyne wasn't just a better helicopter. With
vastly improved speed and range, it would be a new way to travel between cities,
linking one city center to the next. The concept behind the Rotodyne dates
all the way back to the early 1920's, when a pioneering Spanish inventor set out to
build a safer plane. By adding an un-powered freely spinning rotor, his
planes could fly slowly without stalling, making them inherently safer than
airplanes. In fact, without any forward motion, the planes would simply glide
back to earth, slower than a parachute. They were called autogyros. Over the years, they were used in military reconnaissance and even to deliver mail. But by the 1940's,
helicopter technology improved and autogyros largely fell out of favor. But
decades later, British aircraft manufacturer Fairey aviation still saw
enormous potential in the autogyro concept. If the vertical takeoff and
landing capability of a helicopter could be combined with the speed and
efficiency of an airplane, Fairey would have something truly special on their
hands. With the help of funding from the British government, the first Rotodyne
prototype took to the skies in 1957. It could carry 40 passengers 700 kilometers
and reach speeds of over 300 kilometers per hour. All while being able to land and
take off on a space not much larger than the aircraft itself. And after 350
successful test flights, the Rotodyne proved to be safe and capable. But of
course, it all went to [expletive]. For one, the Rotodyne's tip jets made a lot of noise. And that was going to be a problem right
in the middle of a city. From the start, there were doubts about whether the
public would tolerate it. And noise is often believed to be the reason why the
Rotodyne failed. But that's not the whole story. After proving their prototype,
fairy moved on to develop a production version. A larger more capable Rotodyne
that could carry up to 75 passengers. And it promised to be quieter. Ferry spent
years developing noise suppressor technology for the Rotodyne's tip jets.
And while progress was slow, by 1960 the engineering team had reduced noise
by over 15%. And airlines were interested, with small orders coming in from around
the world. Not bad for an entirely new kind of transport. But to get the
production version built, Fairey still needed about £10 million more in funding
from the British government. And it was money they'd never get. Because at the
start of the 1960's, Britain's aviation industry was a mess. Too many aircraft
builders were building too few planes and relying heavily on government
sponsored projects. The solution was to force these companies, including Fairey
Aviation to merge. And the Rotodyne got caught in the shuffle, competing with a
number of other helicopter projects. progress was also slowed by difficulties
sourcing more powerful engines. And the need to reduce tip jet noise even
further. When it became clear that the Rotodyne wouldn't be delivered to
Airlines on time, and the eventual cost of each Rotodyne would have been too
high, one by one orders were cancelled. In 1962,
the British government, facing economic pressures, suddenly pulled funding for
Rotodyne. And the half helicopter, half plane, once promising to
revolutionize intercity travel... just disappeared. The working prototype and
technical research were quickly destroyed. Leaving only a few small
pieces for museum display The Rotodyne failed to change air travel
and only a single prototype was ever built. But not all ambitious leaps
forward in engineering lead to such failure. Take the DC-3. A machine that in
its time, revolutionized air travel and earned a legendary status in wartime.
Over 16,000 DC-3 variants were built. This remarkable plane took the skies
just three decades after the Wright brothers first flight. And yet, hundreds
of DC-3's are still flying today. Learn about this plane's incredible story on
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Runways are expensive, but flying non-fixed wing aircraft is really expensive. We have runs trials every which way, jets are far more efficient and it definitely adds up. Non-fixed wing aircraft are great for short haul but we can't make them efficient enough to even come close to compete with fixed wing jet aircraft.
Anyone else notice the glaring misconception about decibels being linear? “Reduced the noise by 15%”. 113 dB to 96dB is not 15% reduction, dB is an exponential scale. A 17 decibel reduction is MUCH more than 15%, more like 66% reduction in noise.
Really interesting topic, terrible fucking video. The guy repeats himself over and over just to make that 10 minute mark.
Kind of shocked that this idea never took off.
Helicopters don't change direction by changing the angle of the main rotor. The main rotor can't tilt or move and is fixed to the airframe. Instead, each individual blade on the rotor can be pitched up or down, and you force the helicopter to move in a certain direction by causing the blades to pitch down in that direction and neutral in the other directions. To make the aircraft go up, you force the blades to pitch down in all directions. The mechanism that allows this is called a swashplate.
Shame someone doesn't reattempt this today. But just remove the jet engines on the rotor blade that makes it noisy, replaced with just the standard method seen on a normal helicopter where fuel powers it.
As this is only used for takeoff and landing anyway, so wouldn't interfere with safety, as it's propeller is propelled most of the time without assistance.
Wait wait wait.
DevinDestin from smarter every day definitely taught me, in less than 10 minutes, that a helicopter definitely does not tilt the rotor to move in a given direction. Less than 2 minutes in this video has lost most, if not all of its credibility. Do some helicopter actually work like that?Smart Every day helicopter video playlist
TIL there was such a thing.
I wonder why the military never used it? Seems perfect for them seeing how they have the Osprey for basically the same reason like 30-40 years later.