Cierva C. 29
| Cierva C. 29 | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Gyroplane , experimental aircraft |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
Soil tests 1934 |
| Number of pieces: |
1 |
The Cierva C.29 (also Westland C.29 ) was a five-seater cabin gyrocopter , in 1934 in one copy in the UK in the Westland Aircraft designed and built. Only the rotor system came from the Cierva Autogiro Company .
history
Westland's managing director and designer, Robert Bruce, and the plant's chief test pilot, Harald Penrose, were interested in rotary wing aircraft in the early 1930s, which they saw as having potential for a future air taxi . The gyroplane planned afterwards was supposed to be bigger and heavier than all models built in Great Britain so far. Penrose even took flying lessons at the Cierva-run flight school in Hanworth in 1933, where he received his license to fly gyroscopes. In the same year Bruce and Arthur Davenport began designing the C.29, Westland's first rotary wing aircraft. The Cierva Autogiro Company was responsible for the design and construction of the rotor and the direct control rotor control system.
In April 1934, the first soil tests with the completed machine took place in the presence of Juan de la Cierva . However, strong ground resonance problems emerged from the start . The stick of the direct control, which was hanging down from the rotor head , even had to be secured with a rope to prevent it from swinging uncontrollably in the cabin. Cierva then judged the C.29 to be too dangerous for a first flight. Later that year, the Air Ministry decided to conduct their own investigations with the machine. So on December 11, 1934, the Ministry transferred the C.29 to the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough. There she received the RAF serial number K3663. There, too, strong, unrecoverable ground resonances occurred during the rolling tests, so that the test had to be discontinued. In June 1939 the aircraft was finally scrapped.
construction
The truss fuselage structure consisted of steel tubes with a square cross-section and duralumin tubes, as well as duralumin and wooden stringers. With the help of form elements, an oval fuselage cross-section was created. The shaft to drive the rotor before take-off ran in front of the windshield from the rear of the engine to the rotor head. The fastening ring for the radial engine was inclined downwards in relation to the longitudinal axis of the fuselage, in order to generate an air flow with the engine idling before the engine was started, which also helps to set the rotor rotating. The three-bladed rotor sat on an upside-down V-structure that was on the cabin and guyed to the landing gear arms. The profile of the left part of the two-part, braced horizontal stabilizer was reversed to compensate for the propeller torque. A small fin was attached under the stern and a large fin with a rudder above. The entire fuselage structure was only covered with fabric for reasons of weight. The only exceptions were the cabin door and small areas of the cabin sides that were clad with duralumin.
The cabin was glazed all around with sliding windows on both sides. The seats were arranged so that two people sat in front and three behind.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data |
|---|---|
| crew | 1 |
| Passengers | 4th |
| length | 11.59 m |
| Rotor diameter | 15.25 m (profile Gö 606) |
| Rotor speed | 200 min −1 |
| Empty mass | 1462 kg |
| Max. Takeoff mass | 2270 kg |
| Top speed | 259 km / h |
| Cruising speed | 208 km / h |
| lowest horizontal speed | 34 km / h |
| Climb performance | 434 m / min |
| Range | 450 km |
| Engine | 1 × 14-cylinder Armstrong-Siddeley-Panther IIA radial engine with an output of 600 hp |
See also
literature
- Derek N. James: Westland Aircraft since 1915 , Putnam, 1991, reprint 2001, ISBN 0-85177-847-X , pp. 223-226
- Arthur WJG Ord-Hume: Autogiro - Rotary Wings Before the Helicopter , Mushroom Model Pub., 2009, ISBN 978-83-89450-83-8 , p. 96, p. 271
Web links
- Photo and data of the C.29 (accessed on October 12, 2018)
- Photo and brief history of the C.29 (accessed October 15, 2018)
Individual evidence
- ^ Ord-Hume, p. 290