Autogyro Project

STATUS REPORT APRIL 2004


I am running a project in co-operation with the Swedish Rotorcraft Flying Club. The goal is to pre-rotate the rotor blades of an autogyro with hydrogen peroxide rockets on the rotor tips at take-off and make a near vertical take-off as with a helicopter.

I have reported about this project before on this site:
Autogyro Project Report 1
Status Report Oct 03

We have had some progress lately, so it is time for an update. What has been done since last time is the following:
- The hollow rotor head with the flexible high pressure hose for the hydrogen peroxide is ready.
- A rotatating sealing has been acquired.
- Two Rotor blades, 2 x 3.5 m, have been acquired and the job to connect them to the rotor head is now under way. Tubes 3/8" for the HP will be installed in the blades.
- The rotor tip rockets have been made and tested in a test bench. The rockets have a diameter of 40 mm and the length is 225 mm. The weight is 0.7 kg, including the catalyst material and the wing connection clamp. The rockets can be propelled with Rocket Grade Hydrogen Peroxide, like at the test shown in the mpg-file here below. It can also be propelled with lower concentrated HP and an organic fuel. The glow plug at the front end of the rocket is than used to ignite the fuel mix.

The next phase will be to test the rockets when mounted on the rotorblades.

Here is a link to a mpg-file showing a rocket test:

Rocket Test, April 5 2004 (Large file, 23 MB)

And a couple of photos:

This article was updated on November 30th, 2006