Hiller Flying Platform

[gyroparts]

I was digging through my VHS tapes and found one with Discovery Channels Wings - Flying oddities episode. They had about a 3-minute video/narration about the platform. Shows it flying, and well out of ground effect on some shots. For those of you who have not seen it fly, you might find it interesting.

This one appears to be one of the original models that had the two 40hp engines and a diameter of 5'. Technical papers on it state that the duct around the two counter rotating propellers is actually a wing. The propellers provide 60% of the lift, with the airflow over the curved portion of the duct providing about 40% of the total lift.

As the video states, an engine failure would be unthinkable. I posted the video on my website. It is in Windows Media format. Here is the link.
www.gyroparts.com

~Jerry

[Ga6riel]

thats an above average performance quotient for a ducted fan, and strangely similar to most airfoil sections.
the great difficulty with all these sort of machines is, what happens when the engine dies. for it can not auto-rotate or glide.