Arliss Riggs Tractor Autogyros

okikuma

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Taken from one of Dan Donley's DVDs, the following are still frames of Arliss Riggs' single place tractor autogyro he built some years ago. Sorry for the poor photo quality. The original was filmed on 8 mm film and then transferred to DVD.

Wayne
 

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Wayne

Thanks for those pictures, this is kind of what I would like to build, single place open cockpit. I think that is a 85 hp engine and mainly a wood fuselage.

Tony
 
It is my understanding that 43G was powered by a 65 hp Franklin engine.

In not knowing the temperature the day the film was taken it appears to me that 43G was a little bit underpowered with 65 hp (the fuselage was mostly in a nose high attitude) and that density altitude was playing a major role. El Mirage is just under 3,000 ft MSL and a 95 F degree day would make the density altitude a few feet over 6,000 ft. Also the 65 hp Franklin did not have mixture control.

Wayne
 
Wayne

Believe your right, its been a long time since I read that story. Sent my copy back to PRA for archives.

Tony
 
Some pics here (courtesy of some Jap chaps):
http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~GYROS/011022.html
85 hp engine and mainly a wood fuselage
One wouldn't perhaps want to reinvent the wheel. There are many single place fuselages built using the time honoured aviation material out there:
http://www.flitzerbiplane.com/
More suggestions here:
http://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forums/warbirds-warbird-replicas/7888-ww1-wooden-biplane.html
Monoplane designs like the Heath parasol would be suitable as well, you'd probably want to shorten the fuselage a bit.

The rigid rotor head support using four struts does not seem a good choice keeping in mind Chuck's recommendations for teetering rotors, so you'd probably rather use a fairly slender single beam from steel (or bamboo if you want to go green and fatigue free....;-)
 
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It's hard to tell from a few pics, but judging from the landing gear, I wonder if the nose-high attitude was deliberate? Those seem like "fly by" pics taken from the ground, in which case he might well be in slow flight.
 
Hi Juergen

As best I can tell, about any fixed wing fuselage one might choose (especially a tailgragger) the fuselage should be shortened by at least one compression bay and the other problem will be the landing gear. It looks like on a taildragger style the main gear will need to set further foward than on a fixed wing. Of course there would be many different type engines considered so the actual position of the main gear would need to be variable in construction. In a nut shell, about any fuselage one might choose is going to be a "STARTING POINT" for design re-work.

Tony

PS. but still love the idea !!!!
 
You are absolutely right in every point you mention, Tony: main gear forward, fuselage shortened and yes there will be quite a bit to redesign on any aircraft you choose as a starting point. A variable position main gear seems a great idea, with so few tractors around there is not very much expertise on the correct landing gear position. All in all a very challenging project, I keep my fingers crossed!

Cheers,

Juergen
 
Arliss’ fuselages were typically made from plywood door skins with lots of fiberglass in critical areas.

Rotors were carved from fir planks with embedded rebar for chordwise balance and with fiberglass cover. He used NACA 23012 airfoils.

He was a desert rat from a bygone era, always wearing bib overalls but no dummy. When not gold prospecting, he haunted southern California libraries, reading everything available on aerodynamics.
 
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I think Arliss was sort of Jim Eich's hero, wish I could have known him.


Tony
 
Wayne .... a few years ago Steven M. (Coraview) scanned some interesting Arliss Riggs articles for us here .....

http://www.rotaryforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26849


An archived trivia clip from the Hammond Times Newspaper shows where Arliss & Mrs Riggs spent Christmas December 1940 :)

Plus another picture of Arliss Riggs (on the left in overalls)

.
 

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Jim Eich wrote a couple of articles about Arliss for the PRA mag. He included lots of pictures and some technical information.

Arliss had some original ideas about rotor suspension. He cracked up machine after machine, though, so it's difficult now to determine whether it would be worthwhile to pick up where he left off.

In a sense, Jim Eich did just that with his tractor gyro. It had yaw stability issues, though, so it shouldn't be copied slavishly, either.
 
I suspect that the reason why Arliss built his tractors with a long nose gear strut was two-fold. One, to give adequate clearance for the prop and two, actively tilt back the rotor thrust line a little more than the nominal 9 degrees aft of vertical to aid in lift off and landing.

In viewing the photos, one can view that the engine thrust line runs horizontally along the imaginary upper longeron line, through the cord of the horizontal stabilizer. In cruise flight this thrust line would be parallel to the line of flight and to the ground.

As for the nose high flight attitude, this is why I surmised that the 65 hp Franklin engine was not producing the full 65 hp because of the lack of mixture control and the fair amount of density altitude present. Regardless what flight attitude is viewed in the film, I still believe Arliss' tractor is a good little machine and design.

Chuck, you mentioned that Arliss used the NACA 23012. Was a reflex added or was the airfoil was used as is?

Doug, It is true that Jim Eich's JE-2 had directional stability issues. The perfect fix in my mind would be to add at least a 24" compression bay (extension) behind the rear seat and increase the vertical and horizontal stabilizer area for better overall directional stability. Those modifications then would make a great little two place tractor.

If someone has a copy of the JE-2 plans they could send me, I'd do the math and then work on the mods.

Wayne
 

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Chuck, you mentioned that Arliss used the NACA 23012. Was a reflex added or was the airfoil was used as is?


Wayne
Wayne, the one I saw at the Wagner Ranch (A defunct chicken factory, chicken coops becoming gyro hangars) years ago had no reflex but there were fair sized trim tabs at ~3/4 radius.

The negative pitching moment of the 23012 is so small that little correction is necessary.
 
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Wayne

Many years ago, I had to opportunity to have a great long conversation with Jim Eich, a most interesting man indeed. Jim had stopped selling his JE-2 plans as he knew there was a problem. Basically it was the yaw control which Doug mentions, it was possible to go into a "P" factor flat spin during full power climb out and you could not recover from it once it started. I think Jim told me that 3 machines had done this including his, everyone walked away without major injuries. If you look closely at the tractor Arliss made and the one Jim made you will see very significant differences in the vertical and horizontal stabs. Jim said he now knew his vertical was to small and was "shadowed" by the fuselage making it even less effective, he said it needed twin verticals out in the slip stream and prop stream.

Other than the yaw problem, it did amazing performance as a 2 place open cockpit on the hp he used (seems like it may have been aroung 90 hp, not sure) he said he felt that the main gear should be improved also.

Jim was a great guy, if you would take the time to talk to him, he would take the time to talk to you, just another one of the benefits of going to the conventions and going nose to nose with the best, also got to have a nice long conversation with "Mr. Carter Sr." at one of the conventions, it just doesn't get any better than this, and all of this for a membership fee !!!!

Tony
 
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