Weir W.1
| Weir W.1 | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Gyroplane , experimental aircraft |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
W.1: March 1933, W.2: May 1934 |
| Number of pieces: |
W.1: 1, W.2: 1 |
The Weir W.1 (also Cierva C.28 ) was an autogyro , the early 1930s in one copy in the UK at the G. & J. Weir Ltd. was designed and built. Only the rotor system came from the Cierva Autogiro Company . Within the sequence of Cierva names, the draft was given the number C.28. The W.2 was a further development with which a new jumping start technique was tested.
history
With the founding of the Cierva Autogiro Company in 1928, strong ties with the Scottish G. & J. Weir Ltd. began. James George Weir was not only a financier from the start, but also acted as Chairman of Cierva Autogiro until 1951. In the summer of 1932, James Weir decided to develop his own gyroplane based on the Cierva model. The fact that shortly beforehand his wife was the first woman in England to receive a license to fly a gyroplane contributed to the decision. Weir intended to build a small, light, single-seat gyroplane and thus pursued the development direction of an inexpensive and safe means of transport, which Cierva also saw as future-oriented.
The developers of the W.1 were Fred L. Hodgess and RF Bower in Cathcart near Glasgow, where the machine was also built. Cierva in England supported the development with intensive advice. The machine, which was completed in spring 1933, had an engine that was derived from a Dryad engine designed by Douglas in Bristol. The Dryad HO-2, designed as a two-cylinder boxer engine, developed 40 hp. However, according to other sources, it was a Pixie engine.
For the first flight, the aircraft was transported to Hanworth , where Cierva had moved in 1931/32. Cierva had previously used Avro's factory airfield in Hamble near Southampton for this task since the start of gyroplane production. Juan de la Cierva carried out the first flight himself in May 1933, as usual. The machine had the B-Class test designation W-1 on the fuselage, matching the designation .
The flight test did not produce satisfactory results. Because of its small size and lightweight construction, the W.1 tended to vibrate heavily, even with its small engine. Added to this was the lack of directional stability and an unsuitable device for pre-rotation of the rotor before take-off to shorten the take-off distance. After returning to Scotland, Weir made some improvements and then brought the W.1 back to Hanworth in December 1933 to continue testing. On December 21st, however, the aircraft was so badly damaged in a failed landing that it could no longer be repaired.
A further development of the W.1 was the W.2 , which was primarily intended to be used to test the new Auto-Dynamic rotor head developed by Weir , which enabled a jump start. The first flight took place in March 1934 also in Hanworth (according to other sources in Glasgow from the RAF Abbotsinch airfield opened two years earlier ). The Weir Dryad O-92 engine (also called Dryad II) that was now in use was a little more powerful with 45 to 50 hp, but the machine was still significantly underpowered. The B-Class registration was W-2. Any subsequent series production was priced at £ 355 .
During the flight tests, the W.2 showed problems similar to those that had previously occurred with the W.1. So the strong vibrations occurring in flight could not be eliminated. In addition, the flight performance fell short of expectations. During the tests, the W.2 achieved a total flight time of around 10 hours. The machine was stored during the Second World War; It was not until 1953 that it was briefly made available to the public in Hendon as an exhibit at the Fifty Years of Flying exhibition organized by the British tabloid Daily Express . Currently (2018) the W.2 is on display in the Aviation Collection of the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh .
construction
The W.1 and W.2 had a plywood half-shell construction and a foldable two-blade rotor with a diameter of 8.53 m. For flight control they used the first time in the Cierva C.19 Mk. V tried and parallel with the Cierva C.30 introduced in mass production "direct control" ( direct control ). For this purpose, the rotor head could be tilted in any direction and no aerodynamic surfaces were necessary for control. The W.2's Auto-Dynamic rotor head was a further development of the direct control method. Here the swivel joints of the rotor were inclined and had no friction dampers, in order to enable a very quick adjustment of the angle of attack and thus a jump start. For this purpose, the rotor was set in rotation beyond the actual speed of the autorotation before the start and then the kinetic energy stored in the overspeed of the rotor was converted into an upward movement by a sudden collective change in the angle of attack of the rotor blades from the zero position.
This Cierva development was then tested on the Weir W.3 and Weir W.4 and in July 1936 on a Cierva C.30A (registration G-ACWF) before Cierva Autogiro finally approved the Auto-Dynamic rotor head in March 1937 Had to recognize failure.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | W.1 | W.2 |
|---|---|---|
| crew | 1 | 1 |
| length | 4.58 m | 4.27 m |
| Rotor diameter | 8.54 m | 8.54 m |
| Rotor speed | 200 min −1 | |
| height | 2.29 m | |
| Empty mass | 179 kg | |
| Max. Takeoff mass | 250 kg | 277 kg |
| Top speed | 160 km / h | 152 km / h |
| Cruising speed | 120 km / h | 144 km / h |
| Range | 320 km | |
| Engine | 1 × Douglas Dryad (40 hp) | 1 × Weir O-92 (Dryad II) (45-50 hp) |
See also
literature
- Arthur WJG Ord-Hume: Juan de la Cierva and his Autogiros , Stenlake Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-1840335590 , p. 50
- Arthur WJG Ord-Hume: Autogiro - Rotary Wings Before the Helicopter , Mushroom Model Pub., 2009, ISBN 978-83-89450-83-8
- Bruce H. Charnov: From Autogiro to Gyroplane , Praeger Publishers, 2003, ISBN 1-56720-503-8 , p. 129
- Arthur WJG Ord-Hume: British Light Airplanes - Their Evolution, Development and Perfection 1920-1940 , GMS Aviation Books, 2000, ISBN 1-870384-76-8 , p. 124
Web links
- Dugald Cameron, Douglas Thomson: Scottish Contributions to Rotary Wing Flight [1]
- Overview of all Weir constructions (accessed September 25, 2018)
- Photo of the W.1 on researchgate.net (accessed September 25, 2018)
- Photo of the W.1 on mediastorehouse.com (accessed September 28, 2018)
- Photo of the W.2 on 1000aircraftphotos.com (accessed September 25, 2018)