A strange report about Kellett Aircraft Corporation

hesham

ACCESS: USAP
Senior Member
Joined
26 May 2006
Messages
32,494
Reaction score
11,579
Hi,

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=AD628669&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf
 

Attachments

  • 1.JPG
    1.JPG
    37.6 KB · Views: 282
  • 2.JPG
    2.JPG
    50.9 KB · Views: 224
Allow me to add to the Kellett mysteries with this mention of a Kellett KH-13 Rocket (along with a picture that is undecipherable).

Source: http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA108091

The same designation is found elsewhere for the "Stable Mable" (although other sources give the latter as the KH-15): http://www.helicopteros.com.br/hist10.asp
 

Attachments

  • KH-13 Rocket.jpg
    KH-13 Rocket.jpg
    42.4 KB · Views: 624
This from Aerofiles:

1929: (W Wallace & Roderick G) Kellett Autogiro Co, Philadelphia PA. 1943: Kellett Aircraft Corp. 1970: Kellett Corp. c.1987: Bankruptcy, some parts and equipment sold to Piasecki.

And from the same source re KH-15:

KH-15 1954 = USN. 1pOH propelled by small hydrogen-peroxide rockets at the rotor tips; ff: 5/13/54. POP: 1 for testing by the Office of Naval Research [140957].

A KH-15 is also enclosed.
 

Attachments

  • Kellett KH-15.JPG
    Kellett KH-15.JPG
    23.4 KB · Views: 206
Thanks Jos. Despite the more than lousy quality of the image, the KH-13 Rocket also appears to feature counter-rotating tip-jet rotors, like the KH-15, and may therefore have been a prototype for it.
 
Does anyone have access to the Journal of the American Helicopter Society Vol 1/Issue1? It has a 3-page article entitled 'History of Kellett Helicopter Development', by FK Meek, then Kellett's Chief Weight Engineer.
 
I happen to have that scanned - let me get those pages printed and rescanned and I'll post them shortly.

Enjoy the Day! Mark
 
Here you go....

Anyone know of drawings for the Kellett XH-10 Synchropter? Looks interesting!

Enjoy the Day! Mark
 

Attachments

  • History of Kellett - FKMeek.pdf
    379.7 KB · Views: 53
Drawings, no. But photos you'll find a few on the web if you search for "Kellett XR-10" instead of the later "XH-10" redesignation which was not used for very long. You can also find the earlier XR-8 Synchropter, which greatly influenced the design of the XR-10 (dubbed the Eggbeater).


Here are a few links for you:

http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/kellett_xr-8.php
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/kellett_xr-10.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellett_XR-10
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/4563936997/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/4563937005/


Production:

XR-8-KE: Kellett KH-1 Synchropter, one Franklin O-405-9 engine, one built [USAAF s/n 43-44714]
XR-8A-KE: Kellett KH-1 Synchropter, one Franklin O-405-9 engine, one built [USAAF s/n 44-21908]
XR-10-KE (XH-10): Kellett KH-2X-C "Eggbeater", two Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior engines, two built [45-22793,22795]

Second XR-10 may never have been completed.
Production version was to be built by Hughes as the R-10A-HU (H-10A) but this was cancelled.

4563936997_133e4f7833.jpg
 
Thanks for the links - we have the Air Enthusiast at the Museum so will look at that but will have to hunt for the helicopter book referenced.

Enjoy the Day! Mark
 
Mark: thanks for the JAHS article. Alas, no mention of that elusive KH-13.

Stéphane: elsewhere you mentioned that KH stood for Kellett Hughes. I'm wondering if it wasn't Kellett Helicopter -- in line with KD/Kellett Direct-control?
 
Apophenia said:
Stéphane: elsewhere you mentioned that KH stood for Kellett Hughes. I'm wondering if it wasn't Kellett Helicopter -- in line with KD/Kellett Direct-control?

No, no! I NEVER claimed that "KH-" stood for "Kellett Hughes"! All I said was that the KH-2 was supposed to be produced by Hughes!
Of course KH- meant Kellett Helicopter.
 
I pulled a copy of the JAHS article, too, and it's interesting for its references to the Hughes XH-17 heavy lift helicopter...according to the article, Kellett originated the concept, but it was turned over to Hughes in 1948 for development. The KH-15 was built under a US Navy research contract to pursue Kellett's goal of developing automatic stabilization for helicopters -- a real challenge. The article (dtd Jan 1956) says that the KH-15 had been flown for up to four minutes "hands off."

Note on nomenclature. Stéphane's correct. USAAF helicopters were designated as "R-x" (for Rotary Wing) until 1948, and "H-x" thereafter. In either case, the "X" prefix indicated that the aircraft was a prototype. It's clear from the article that Kellett's internal designation system used "KH-x" (for Kellett Helicopter) throughout.
 
For KH-2A,please see;

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,5175.msg41047.html#msg41047
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom