Piasecki "Gargantua"

[boxkite]

From an aero magazine from the 1950s comes this mention on a crane helicopter project by Piasecki, named "Gargantua". No further information, so I hope anybody of the SPF readers is able to help.

 

[Jos Heyman]

You are probably referring to the Piasecki PA-39 project although my source document, 'The Piasecki Story of Vertical Lift' does not specifically refer to this as Gargatua.
It was a concept of utilizing multiple helicopters joined together to lift a common payload. The multi helicopter lift system used rigid interconnections and would allow the individual helicopter to de disconnected so that they could also be used for their original tasks.
The publication has pics of a configuration with two CH-54 helicopters as well as four CH-53E helicopters. The latter configuration could lift 60 tons.

 

[Kim Margosein]

Didn't they (or Mr Piasecki himself) pursue that concept well into the 90s, later adding a small blimp for additional lift?

Kim M

 

[yasotay]

They did continue to explore the concept. Sadly the prototype was destroyed when one of the H-21 (I think) aircraft broke loose from vibration through the structure. Tragically the test pilot was killed.

 

[hesham]

Hi,

The same concept was PA-97.

 

[hesham]

Hi,

a studying to Piasecki PA-39 concept,please note
again the report number is 39-X-11 and it is called
Model-39 also.

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=AD743516&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

 

[Nik]

Scary...

IIRC, the near-equivalent Russian design had horrendous problems with vibration and resonances, not to mention the small issue of sychronising controls before 'fly by wire'...

 

[Tailspin Turtle]

They did continue to explore the concept. Sadly the prototype was destroyed when one of the H-21 (I think) aircraft broke loose from vibration through the structure. Tragically the test pilot was killed.

The helicopters were H-34s. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piasecki_PA-97

 

[hesham]

Hi,


and this is from early ideas led to Gargantua;


http://books.google.com.eg/books?id=vtsDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=popular+mechanics+1959&hl=en&sa=X&ei=yJwAVNPCLcam0QWzqoGACw&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=popular%20mechanics%201959&f=true

 

[Platt-LePage Aircraft]

Frank Piasecki had this idea going back as far as the days he was at Platt-LePage Aircraft, when he proposed joining two XR-1 helicopters.

 

[hesham]

Hi,

a studying to Piasecki PA-39 concept,please note
again the report number is 39-X-11 and it is called
Model-39 also.

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=AD743516&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

How to get this report again ?.

 

[flateric]

DTIC AD0743516: Multi-Helicopter Heavy Lift System Feasibility Study : Defense Technical Information Center : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

A tandem nose-to-tail configuration was selected, and a detailed study of the configuration was made to assess its feasibility and identify potential problem...

archive.org