Swiss Little Known Helicopters,Light Aircraft and Projects

hesham

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From Ailes 23/10/1954,

Mr. Robert Stierlin and Mr. Roger Mercier designed and built Type-1,as an open airframe helicopter in 1948,followed by Type-2 in 1953 and Type-3 again with Mercier in 1956,later created Type-4 in 1962 and Type-5 in 1967,but the last one made accident in 1969,Michel Devaux rebuilt the helicopter after the accident. The new helicopter known as the SD 90 (or SD 100 when it was equipped with a boxer aircooled VW-Porsche engine) was registered HB-YAD between 1972 and 1989.

https://www.heli-archive.ch/en/people/swiss-builders/stierlin-robert/

Also in Ailes journal,they spoke about Gyrocopter,designed by Mr. A. Watteyne and took assist from a Belgium designer,Mr. de Glymes,very strange configuration,I think it was a tailsitter concept looks like FW Triebflügel ?.
 

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Many thanks to you my dear Kuno,

and here is a little known conversion of Bucker Bu.131,the FFA R.170 & R.180,from JAWA 1963-64 and JAWA 1965-66
 

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Dear Hesham - the conversion of the Bücker Jungman in Switzerland from Hirth to Lycoming-engines is actually not "little known" here in the Country, many of them are still flying in exactly this configuration...
 
The strange "Gyropter" would have woked more like the US Lockheed XFV-1 and Convair XFV-2 tailsitters. The main differences are to enlarge the proprotor and to place it amidships. The Triebflügel was different as it had no fixed wing but relied on the rotor for lift in horizontal flight as well, a system known variously as the radial-lift rotor or the self-propelled wing.

The gyropter would have been technically feasible but would most likely have suffered the same limited maximum speed as the US Osprey tiltrotor. And I'd hate to have to bail out and get blown back through the rotor disk. Give me the US tractor types any day.
 
From L+K 3/1981,

in article about Pilatus P.3 and PC.7,I found those two aircraft,maybe a Projects,and I don't know if they from Swiss or not,of course the TOM-8 was a Czechoslovakian aircraft.
 

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As mentioned in the article, those are not real projects, just doodles made by the author(s) of the article, musing about the possible TOM-8 turboprop development, same way PT-7 was developed from PT-3. Marvel Alfa is obviously named after MARtin VELek, Mirbal Ba-1 possibly after Miroslav Balous.
 
From L+K 1/1987,

there was a Project from Titlis Fiber Composites company,called TFC-1,all details are here;

Swiss company Titlis Fiber Composites, specialized in manufacturing composite materials, began work on the cold business amfibian TFC-1 both amphibious and conventional chassis; to drive is considering the PT-6A-65B turboprop engine. Aircraft with a maximum weight of 3500 kg should reach speeds up to 540 km / h and carry 9 passengers over a distance of 4500 km.TFC-1 tests in the wind tunnel were successfully.
The manufacturer intends to build a prototype jet room during this year year and the first take-off planned next year.
 

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From Aviation magazine 1954,

they hinted to a VTOL airplane by Watteyne,with more data;

DEGLYWA. - The Belgian National Society of Deglywa Gyronefs is being trained in Brussels, at the instigation of MM. of Glymes and Watteyne, The Study of a single-seat prototype is completed and construction is envisaged, after submission of plans to official services. This device. of a Power from 65 to 75 hp. would have a rotor diameter of 6 m., a total weight from 300 to 330 kg. a upward speed from 12 to 14 m.-sec, cruising speed horizontal from 150 to 170 km.-h. and
a ceiling of 5,000 to 5,600 m.
 

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From Aviation magazine 1964,

a strange helicopter design patent,invented by Watteyne.
 

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From Aeroplane monthly 2012/6,

this Belgium designer was worked in Switzerland as I knew,and he was called Andre Watteyne,and I spoke about him before,he invented a canard light monoplane,A.W.6.B.
 

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what was this personal helicopter,which designed by Mr. Buehrle ?.

No "Mr. Buehrle". The Bührles - Emil Georg and later Dieter - weren't designers. They were the business heads of Oerlikon and Bührle/Contraves firms.

As your Contraves link says: "The helicopter (... apparently never received an official designation) ..."

The link also says that this twin-tipjet helicopter was designed by an engineer named Slenzel (and built under the direction of another named Rudolf Heller).
 
Here is the Liteco/Intora Atlas Firebird Helicopter;


http://helimuseum.com/heli.php?ident=firebird

https://www.tecaeromex.com/ingles/RH-i.htm



Registration: F-WGTX
Country of origin: Switzerland
Built: Switzerland, 1995
Manufacturer: Intora
Manufacturer's Number:
Engines: Hydrogen Peroxide rotor tip mounted reaction jets
Type: Two seat military/civil helicopter
Note: Used hydrogen peroxide fuelled rocket engines installed at the tips of the rotor blades.
Details: These helicopter projects stem from 1950's technology around the use of hydrogen peroxide H2O2 fuelled rocket engines, installed at the tips of the rotor blades to drive the rotor system, using super-heated steam.
The principal was incorporated mainly in the Rotor-craft Pinwheel one-man helicopter, first flown in 1954 and funded by the US Navy and Army as the aerospace Mini-copter to evaluate use as an air-droppable pilot rescue device. The system was also trialled by Roe and Napier on a Skeeter helicopter at Eastleigh, Hants in 1957.
In the early 1980's, the original programme was abandoned and the project sold to Liteco, which continued development until 1998 when it was acquired by Intora Firebird PHC in Southend, Essex. Two prototypes were displayed at the 1998 Farnborough Air Show, including an open frame Dragonfly DF1 based closely on the original concept and the enclosed cabin two-seat Atlas design.
Intora Firebird ran out of funds in 2004 and the project has been mothballed ever since. A contributing factor was the unavailability in Europe of high grade H2O2 due to the storage and handling risks. The two helicopters went into storage, until they were donated to The Helicopter Museum in 2017
The application of H2O2 rocket power to drive a helicopter is quite rare and these examples are the only known surviving prototypes using this technology. The Dragonfly was first registered in the UK as G-BXZN an Advanced Technologies Inc. CH1 with Constructors No. 00002. The Atlas is a composite airframe, using the main fuselage pod of the unfinished F-WGTZ and the tail boom of F-WGTX.
 

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From Aviation magazine 1964,

a strange helicopter design patent,invented by Watteyne.
My French isn’t up to much but pretty sure this helicopter is a design for a flying model (toy)...just for fun. It looks like a development of the torque reaction ‘freeflight’ types where the back plate of the engine is directly connected to the rotor, the rotor driven by the torque from the engine/propeller. Most of the trust came from the propeller and the rotor was mainly used to stabilise the machine. Cox made one for their .020 cubic inch 2 stroke PeeWee motors if anyone remembers them.

Out of interest, in the text for that machine they mention an Englishman, Bareham or Barehame. This is almost certainly a miss spelling for Francis Boreham, ‘The Old Professor’ who worked in the flight shed at Bristol Helicopters (mentioned post #49 here: https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/bristol-helicopters.2872/page-2)

The other strange gyrocopter design, shown in post #1, resembles another type of freeflight model helicopter. If anyone is interested, the designer Andre Watteyne describes the various types of models in the 1961 Aeromodeller Annual here: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showatt.php?attachmentid=5560663 similar examples of both types are shown.
 
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It was not a toy or for fun,but it a new concept by its time,so it was gotten a patent ?.
Just to be clear, those comments about it being a model or toy were relating to the article/drawings shown in post #13. It is a flying model design. You can see he has annotated part #1 as the motor and it is a single cylinder 2 stroke model engine driving a propeller (used as a ducted fan). The fuselage he has drawn is a semi-scale design of something with turbines over the cabin, the fuselage is just for show to make it look more realistic. It also says ‘Aéromodèlisme’ in the banner which translates as Aeromodelling.
 
I translate all the article,

it was a new idea for more stabilizer to the rotors,created to test on Model,but intended to use on real helicopter.
 
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Hi,

what was this personal helicopter,which designed by Mr. Buehrle ?.

http://kulturserver-nds.de/home/hubtest/medien/Typenkartei3953xGUN7x9T3Z7.pdf
I couldnt resist posting these pics as well.
Contraves_helicopter_5_HAB.jpg
Contraves_helicopter_6_HAB.jpg
The pulse-jets and the controls look gorgeous,who ever made them took extra time to get them looking just right,the quality of the workmanship is beautiful.
 
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