Piasecki PA-2C annular wing VTO aircraft

Here's another view of this windtunnel model, which was to be a single seat test
and development aircraft.
The other photo shows a mockup of another design for such a ringwing testbed.
(from Aviationweek 10/1960)
 

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The bottom image of the Piasecki Ring Wing is of the original mock up, made from the fuselage of the Platt-LePage XR-1A helicopter.

Frank Piasecki had worked at Platt-LePage Aircraft early in his career, and bought the XR-1A postwar to flight test, and partly out of sentiment, unfortunately the airframe was later scrapped by Piasecki's works manager without Frank's permission.

XR-1AWrightFieldJune1944copy.jpg
 
This picture, although in b/w, was shown in AW 9/1960, the article decribing it,
as a proposal for a tactical support weapon system.
 

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Dear Boys and Girls, here is an article in French about a Piasecki annular-wing VTOL "project"......

The article comes from the 12th November 1960 issue of Les Ailes......

Terry (Caravellarella)
 

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Jemiba said:
Here's another view of this windtunnel model, which was to be a single seat test
and development aircraft.
The other photo shows a mockup of another design for such a ringwing testbed.
(from Aviationweek 10/1960)


My dear Jemiba,

the first Model (VTOL-2) was an attack version of the PA-2;

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a279794.pdf
 

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Here are two pages from "The Piasecki Story of Vertical Lift, Pioneers in progress for over 50 Years"
 

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Jos Heyman said:
Here are two pages from "The Piasecki Story of Vertical Lift, Pioneers in progress for over 50 Years"

Awesome! Got to find that publication one day...
 
Especially interesting is the sketch at the bottom right, probably showing the "service
version" with fixed wings outside of the ducts.
 
Jemiba said:
This picture, although in b/w, was shown in AW 9/1960, the article decribing it,
as a proposal for a tactical support weapon system.

Hi,

http://archive.aviationweek.com/image/spread/19600926/28/2
 

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Hi,

the Piasecki PA-2B was developed from Platt-LePage XR-1,after the company bought it
in 1949.

http://www.samolotypolskie.pl/samoloty/14556/126/Piasecki-PA-2B2
 
Read also the comment made by Platt-Le-Page on 21 May 2008, suggestion that part of the XR-1 fuselage was used in a mock-up, which, if the Polish reference is correct, was, presumably, designated as PA-2B.
As such I would suggest that it would be incorrect to say the PA-2B "was developed" from XR-1.
 
That page is inaccurate.

1. Frank Piasecki bought the XR-1A in 1947, not 1949 as that page mentions.

2. Frank bought the XR-1A with the intention to flight test the old helicopter, (which he did for a time) and partly out of
sentiment, as he began his helicopter design career at Platt-LePage.

3. He grounded the XR-1A when he noticed that safely bailing out in flight, would be extremely risky at best. (His own words: "I'd have ended up like sliced salami" )

4. Frank brought the old helicopter to Essington, when he started Piasecki Aircraft. It sat outside for sometime getting vandalized by the local kids. (I have photos of the XR-1A airframe in Essington, including one in color)

5. The XR-1A fuselage was used strictly as a Mock-Up to show the basic layout of the concept.
The late John Schneider told me how they cut the pylons off the XR-1A, stripped the fabric off of the rear fuselage, and skinned the leftover air frame with painted sheets of cardboard. (John showed me the engineering book on the project in the latter 90s)

Piasecki photo of the PA-2B Mock Up http://www.piasecki.com/uav_pa2c_picture1_zoom.html

After the photos of the PA-2B Mock Up were taken, the XR-1A airframe and assorted parts were stored at Piac for a time until Frank's works manager got tired of walking around the stored parts, and had them cut up and hauled off to the dump, without telling Frank Piasecki.

Reportedly the rotor blades, rotor heads, swash plates, and transmission survived. The rotors, rotor heads and swashplates were said to have ended up at NEAM, though I've been unable to get anyone there to seriously look for the parts in sometime.

Frank Piasecki was said to have saved the transmission in his collection of parts.
 
Thank you my dear Platt-LePage,

and we can put this picture about PA-2B Mock-up here.
 

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Is the design of the PA-2C more efficient and/or practical than a traditional fixed wing aircraft?
IMG_0278.jpeg IMG_0279.jpeg
 
Is the design of the PA-2C more efficient and/or practical than a traditional fixed wing aircraft?
You know that phrase "situational ethics"? There is also 'situational efficiency' - for what specific missions, and other factors, is efficiency to be compared?

Do you want to move mud, hang a bunch of bombs under the wings and loiter about until called for support?
Do you want to launch from an aircraft carrier and hit high mach on your way out to intercept an approaching unknown?
Do you want to do various, and sometimes not exactly on the books, anti-insurgent missions in various not exactly first-world locations?
Do you as the operating service want an aircraft which has minimal degrading of takeoff run and ordnance lofting performance in hot/high/dusty environments? And is not much affected at the other extreme in arctic environments?
Do you as the aircraft manufacturer want a product you can sell far and wide to not exactly first-world air forces of limited means?
 
By the way,this aircraft was called Piasecki PA-22.
 

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You know that phrase "situational ethics"? There is also 'situational efficiency' - for what specific missions, and other factors, is efficiency to be compared?

Do you want to move mud, hang a bunch of bombs under the wings and loiter about until called for support?
Do you want to launch from an aircraft carrier and hit high mach on your way out to intercept an approaching unknown?
Do you want to do various, and sometimes not exactly on the books, anti-insurgent missions in various not exactly first-world locations?
Do you as the operating service want an aircraft which has minimal degrading of takeoff run and ordnance lofting performance in hot/high/dusty environments? And is not much affected at the other extreme in arctic environments?
Do you as the aircraft manufacturer want a product you can sell far and wide to not exactly first-world air forces of limited means?
I mean fuel efficiency and maneuverability as well as practicality.
 
I mean fuel efficiency and maneuverability as well as practicality.
Practicality for what?

I mean, an AH-64 only has 2000lbs bomb load or so, but people think it's one of the greatest attack helicopters ever. But if you need to haul more boom, well, you need something else.
 
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