Citroën-Marchetti RE-2 Helicopter Prototype

[hesham]

Hi,

The RE-2 was designed (by Mr. Charles Marchetti) for the Citroën motorcar manufacturer and was built purely for R&D and test purposes. It served as engine test bed for the Citroën rotary car engine and also to investigate the feasibility of using motorcar parts and components in light helicopter designs. The sole RE-2 made the first flight on 24 December 1975. No further development of the RE-2 took place and the aircraft went to the Musée Citroën in France. Engine was one 160-190hp Citroën Comotor 624 rotary (Wankel).

https://sites.google.com/site/stingrayslistofrotorcraft/citroen-marchetti-re-2
http://www.helico-fascination.com/recits/jean-marie-potelle/225-le-re-2-helicoptere-citroen.html

 

[hesham]

Hi,

as I know,Mr. Charles Marchetti was a French designer.

 

[toura]

From an old "aviation magazine"

 

[hesham]

From an old "aviation magazine"

Nice page my dear Toura.

 

[hesham]

By the way,

the RE-1 was an autogyro, a hybrid that was part helicopter and part personal aircraft.

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[hesham]

From Pegase 2007.

 

[Archibald]

Citroen boss back then (in the 60's) was an authoritarian megalomaniac (think Howard Hughes) that drove the company into the wall by 1974. That helicopter was only one among many projects that overstretched the company limited resources.

They heavily invested in Wankel engines only for the 1973 oil shock to make them obsolete (fuel hogs)

Citroen slept on the colossal successes of the mythical DS and 2CV - and forgot to renew the rest of its catalogue. When they finally worked on a DS successor, they realized they needed a V6 and... bought Maserati (no less !) instead of jumping into the PRV alliance (Peugeot, Renault, Volvo) which V8 was amputated into a (clunky) V6 after 1973; an engine that lasted 25 years until 1998.

Read again: Citroen bought Maserati. It's like Peugeot buying Lamborghini - seems surreal nowadays.

The resulting Citroen SM was a truly fantastic car, but its V6 was a fuel hog post 1973; while Maserati was a money pit and the oil shock nearly finished Citroen for good: bankrupcy. The French state forced Peugeot to swallow them to save thousands of jobs... and then Chrysler Europe went under, with SIMCA (the fourth big French car maker) along it.
And Peugeot had to eat Simca, too, to save some more thousands jobs.

So the unfortunate Peugeot ate Citroen in 1974 and Simca in 1980... no surprise they were agonizing, too, by 1981: luckily the 205 was their savior.

 

[klem]

Citroen boss back then (in the 60's) was an authoritarian megalomaniac (think Howard Hughes) that drove the company into the wall by 1974. That helicopter was only one among many projects that overstretched the company limited resources.

They heavily invested in Wankel engines only for the 1973 oil shock to make them obsolete (fuel hogs)

Citroen slept on the colossal successes of the mythical DS and 2CV - and forgot to renew the rest of its catalogue. When they finally worked on a DS successor, they realized they needed a V6 and... bought Maserati (no less !) instead of jumping into the PRV alliance (Peugeot, Renault, Volvo) which V8 was amputated into a (clunky) V6 after 1973; an engine that lasted 25 years until 1998.

Read again: Citroen bought Maserati. It's like Peugeot buying Lamborghini - seems surreal nowadays.

The resulting Citroen SM was a truly fantastic car, but its V6 was a fuel hog post 1973; while Maserati was a money pit and the oil shock nearly finished Citroen for good: bankrupcy. The French state forced Peugeot to swallow them to save thousands of jobs... and then Chrysler Europe went under, with SIMCA (the fourth big French car maker) along it.
And Peugeot had to eat Simca, too, to save some more thousands jobs.

So the unfortunate Peugeot ate Citroen in 1974 and Simca in 1980... no surprise they were agonizing, too, by 1981: luckily the 205 was their savior.

I love the T16.

 

[Archibald]

205 T16 ? As in, Ari Vatanen and... City Hunter craziest car chase, ever ?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TEMgfhKkWY&list=PLOkXiKVlEqu9-Pve8YSZ7iY-ERWfp1j7I&index=13

 

[riggerrob]

205 T16 ? As in, Ari Vatanen and... City Hunter craziest car chase, ever ?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TEMgfhKkWY&list=PLOkXiKVlEqu9-Pve8YSZ7iY-ERWfp1j7I&index=13

More imaginative than American car chases.

 

[klem]

205 T16 ? As in, Ari Vatanen and... City Hunter craziest car chase, ever ?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TEMgfhKkWY&list=PLOkXiKVlEqu9-Pve8YSZ7iY-ERWfp1j7I&index=13

This one, is a Japanese (voltigeuse) , it is necessary to admit that it made a good course, there were once rumours of revival of a new model but I do not know, because sometimes to modernize, one falls in denaturing as that it passed for the twingo

 

[VictorXL188]

A few years ago, when I first discovered the Citroen-Marchetti RE-2, I downloaded most of the pics of it on the net. Here's a few of them

 

[persil]

I have just came across great page which present this very helicopter in an extra ordinary way. I just love it. There is also large resolution pictures and... a brochure.
Page:

https://www.citroenorigins.is/en-is/cars/re2

Brochure attached, (pictures will add later)

Also, there is quite fresh YT video on this helicopter:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4c8oELfpck

 

[persil]

Pics part 1.

 

[persil]

Pics part 2.

 

[persil]

Pics part 3.

 

[TomcatViP]

That's a great design (think at all the horrors coming recently out of the Startups). Notice however that I am not sure that maintening the engine would have been fairly practical.