Goodyear helicopter

Tim
The thing runs on Goodyear v-belts. The litature I had showed all the pulleys. Very simple to buiLd.
 
Mike,

If my memory serves me correctly, Goodyear was also making inflat-a-planes during the same time. They were small one and two seat airplanes that could be folded up and delivered to downed pilots. Alot of research was going on during this time and other companies like Kaman who had submitted a ejection seat design with rotor blades. The weirdest system was the Fulton system that inflated a balloon to be caught by C130s and snatch the pilot using his parachute harness and a long line. He then would be winched into to the plane in flight.

If you find more on the helicopter, please post it!
 
Joe
I have read the articles on the inflate-a-plane. I did see the helicopter in one of the old magazine archives, I will try to find it has much better picture.

Mike
 

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I would like to see a two-seater made from more modern materials...like the stuff that NASA used on their inflatable wing experiments. I understand the material was good for some really fast speeds. I wonder if plans for the helicopter and the planes are floating around the internet somewhere? It's sad that these aircraft are usually destroyed when the research is finished.
 
That would make a perfect legal part-103 ultralight helicopter. Empty weght is 234 lbs. well under the legal limit.
 
when i came back from viet nam in 70, i was in ch 5 in tracy, at one of our air showsan old,,er man had a very small co,ax, tiny, the specs called for a nelson engine mounted vertically in the column behind the pilot, overhead stick, the engine and blades were gone, he had stuck a 2 cyl righter in the hole, i dont have a clue who had it, marion springer might remember, ive seen pics of it, dont remember what its called, best i remember was made in early 60s,i think it might have been an experimental for the marine crp, buck,,ive found pics, from some site selling plansits called PCPH102 and apperantly not coax, has tail antitorque rotor,buckZZXZX its the hiller XROE and YROE
 

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Joe
What do you think of the idea of using a vertical shaft, aluminum block briggs engine with the flywheel shaved down to save weight and bored out to around 50 hp? That seems like a good engine for for the helicopter but I am sure though there are some vertical shaft two strokes that might fit the bill.

Mike
 
Can you imagine, there you are, you have just been shot down in the ocean. A rescuse plane flies overhead and drops you a "Inflate A-plane". Things are looking good, you swim over to the package, release the wraping, pull the CO-2 pin the plane inflates and you are almost ready to fly out of there. All you got to do is start that Mac with the old style magneto ignition !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tony
 
Mike,

I'm an old experimenter from way back and like any "out of the box" idea! You'll need a spraque clutch in your system for your safety but over all it sounds doable. You know the Choppy helicopter has a lot of Goodyear flavor to it, lol.

I have often thought of using a marine outboard motor components for things like transmissions and tail rotor gearboxes. What do you think? They should have enough ability to take the torque of a helicopter applications.

Maybe, I can make a few phone calls and track down the one in Columbus museum.
 
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Tony,

In theory, it sounds very doable but a shoot down and ejection is a very tramatic event. Very few people make it through such events uninjured. I would be very sceptical as to a pilots ability to unpack, inflate and fly after being shot down. I would say that about 90% of all ejection are made outside of the seats safe operating range. Pilots tend to stay with the airplane much too long trying to get out of the danger area or trying to keep the bird in the air to save his crew.

Personally, I like the idea of a small inflatable airplane... just think of not needing to pay hangar rent! Just have it on a trailer and take it home when you finish flying...hey, that sounds like a gyro to me, lol.
 
Buckwill,

Can you post more information?
 
to joe nelson, look up xroe an yroe hiller, theres nice on youtube
nice thing is it weighed only 257,i only saw that one one or two times and it was missing blades and engine,,, forgot sorry, look up XROE AND YROE Hiller, used same engine asy your goodyear buggy, have fun let us knowm buck
 
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