Flettner Fl282 Kolibri

[kolibri282]

Short video showing footage of the 282. There is a short sequence where the pilot demonstrates hands off flying (to me the sequence seems to be abridged so one can not really tell, how long the pilot is flying hands off). This supports claims that the Kaman HH-43 Huskie was so stable that it was being considered useless for pilot training...;-)

Have Fun!

 

[okikuma]

I seem to recall an old German Luftwaffe film whereas a "simple housewife" (1940's mindset) with no previous flight experience was taught to fly the FL282 with about two hours of instruction.

Wayne

 

[XXavier]

I seem to recall an old German Luftwaffe film whereas a "simple housewife" (1940's mindset) with no previous flight experience was taught to fly the FL282 with about two hours of instruction.

Wayne

Three hours... A photograph of that 'simple housewife':




Taken from: https://adl-luftfahrthistorik.de/dok/flettner-fl-282-kolibri-hubschrauber-luftwaffe-marine.pdf

 

[WaspAir]

Three hours to solo. Hmmm. Hanna Reitsch, maybe ?

 

[kolibri282]

You mean that simple housewife who used to chop her potatoes by tossing them upwords through the rotor disk of her Fw61 helicopter?
(That actually was the reason why they choose that side by side rotor configuration, you have the highest tip speed right above the cockpit, thus obtaining the best chop results...;-)

Here is a brief clip with her telling the story how she came to fly the beast. She literally translates the German phrase "Gas geben" ( to open the throttle) which points to the fact that the first internal combustion engines actually used gas (e.g. from a coking plant) for fuel.

 

[WaspAir]

.... and the inspiration for the Cuisinart.

 

[okikuma]

Thank you Juergen. I don't doubt that a "normal housewife" (I was close) was able to fly the Fl282. Propaganda is not always lies. Very plausible to lift off, fly around the airfield slowly and land. Just a truthful testament to the stability of a syncropter.

Years ago I was told by a friend that new Charlie Kaman that Charlie was able to inspect and study one of the captured FL282 at the end of the war. Charlie knew that the marriage of his servo tab rotor control on the blades of a syncropter were made for each other. The main reason why Charlie left Sikorsky started his own company and hired Anton Flettner to work with him at Kaman.

Here's what I posted on this forum about 10 years ago about Syncropters in reference to stability.

It is often said that those who don't learn from history, often repeats the same. It is also said that a good idea is often repeated.

By design, the Syncropter is a very stable helicopter, especially in hover. The Syncropter is the only helicopter whereas the pilot can safely release his hand off the cyclic for a good period of time, and the helicopter will not try to deviate from an upright stationary position and ultimately crash.

The US Navy and USMC have been recently experimenting with pilot-less rotorcraft, mainly with the Kaman K-1200 K-MAX Syncropter for battlefield and ship resupply. Well, back in 1953 the US Navy and Kaman Helicopter Company experimented with the same idea.

The first link is a segment from the old TV show, "You Asked For it"

The next video is the current development and experimentation of pilot-less rotorcraft for battlefield and ship resupply.

History repeats itself or a good idea repeated?

Wayne

 

[kolibri282]

Another great clip: Fl282 sea trials. Interestingly the aircraft is stored with the blades removed. The comment seems to indicate this was done to hide the aircraft from view and it says that it would take the crew 40 min to assemble it for flight.