Helicopter with rocket assisted takeoff

[moin1900]

HELICOPTER WITH RATO / JATO

REACTION MOTORS INC.
ROR (ROCKET ON ROTOR)

POPULAR MECHANICS
NOVEMBER 1954
PAGE: 97
"HELICOPTER GETS POWER BOOST FROM ROCKETS"

View: https://youtu.be/RRrYdIqrnWY?feature=shared

Sidenote:
MINUTE: 00:01:53 - 00:02:08
- ROTOR-MOTOR "STARTING STEP" FOR MULTI STEP ROCKETS.


SIKORSKY HRS
HELICOPTER WITH JET ASSISTED TAKE OFF, NAVAL AIR TEST CENTER, Patuxent River, 1952

https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/6abtgv/helicopters_have_played_with_jato_too

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/6abtgv/helicopters_have_played_with_jato_too/

 

[publiusr]

These poor devils needed a boost.

I never saw a Mi-26 struggle like this:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0asO6p235RU


This is aviation's equivalent of the bridge scene in Sorcerer

Perhaps a chopper atop RATO units could fly in--rescue hostages--boost up then drop the rockets.

 

[1635yankee]

Somehow, I think somebody used way too much vivarin when they should have been sleeping.

 

[robunos]

In the UK Saro tested what appears to be an identical system on a Skeeter . . .

'When G-AMTZ had received its new engine, it had been redesignated the Skeeter 6. After gaining its C of A with the Gipsy Major, it was modifed yet again in May 1957 by the addition of a Napier NRE.19 High Test Peroxide rocket booster system to the main rotor. Propulsive nozzles were fitted at the tips of the three blades, fed by an HTP tank mountedbove the rotor hub, providing 67 eshp and increasing vertical climb rate considerably. Endurance was a little under 15 min, and the system was designed to give the Skeeter tropical performance as an alternative to the de Havilland turbo-supercharger also being considered. Only G-AMTZ and Skeeter 6 G-ANMI were modified in this way despite the obvious
advantages; the HTP-boosted Skeeter was deemed unsuitable for military use because of logistic considerations.'

Was this an independent effort, or was there any 'cross-pollination' ?

Source: Putnams 'Saunders and Saro Aircraft since 1917', pp. 244-5.




cheers,
Robin.