Flettner FL-282 Helicopter

Rotor Rooter

Dave Jackson
Joined
Feb 23, 2004
Messages
2,835
Location
Yes
6272.jpg


Tittle: The Luftwaffe Profile 06 - Flettner FL-282

Description: 34 pages of information on the above craft.

Keywords: Flettner, FL-282, Intermeshing, Synchropter, German
 
Last edited:
Both rotors intercrossed are an exceptional inventiveness
 
I think, ironically, that this helicopter was designed by a Jewish man.
Bryan; Anton Flettner wasn't Jewish but his wife was. She converted to Catholicism when she was 16. Dr. Kurt Hohenemser, Anton's right-hand man, was Jewish.


Video of US testing of the Flettner FL-282 by Prewitt Aircraft Company
Flettner Fl 282 Kolibri - YouTube

Partial Copy of Prewitt's Evaluation; TR ATI No. 20283 Evaluation and Tests of the Flettner282
German Helicopter ~ Sept 1948.


Dave
 
Kurt Hohenemser

Kurt Hohenemser

Reflections on the life of Kurt Hohenemser. An 11 page story of his life from Nazi Germany to the United States.

He was the mechanical mathematician behind Flettner.


There is also a 7 page article in the October 2013 Journal of the American Helicopter Society entitled; 'Reflections on the Pioneering Contributions of Professor Kurt Hohenemser to Helicopters and Wind Turbines'.

In this article it says; "....... Second is the fact that, in the 1970s he was a consultant to Sikorsky on the development of the coaxial rotor based on the advancing blade concept (ABC). Owing to an unexplained fatal accident the program was terminated. Hohenemser was given the task of providing an explanation of the accident. He concluded that the induced flow effects on the very stiff hingeless ABC rotor in transition had caused the control power limitations experienced by the pilot"


No one would have been more knowledgeable about the pros and cons of a 'marriage' between the Intermeshing configuration and the ABC rotor.

Unfortunately. the UniCopter project was started 2 years after his passing.
icon9.gif



Dave
 
Last edited:
I will read it very carefully. Juergen thank you.
 
I saved Dave's and Juergen's posted paper's......thank you guys!

I've liked the Flettner Fl 282 Kolibri for years because of its neat design and like the Kaman, the fact that it doesn't have or needs a tailrotor.

The one thing I would do differently, is to shape the bottom so it doesn't look bent and about to fall into two pieces. I don't enjoy flying things that look that way.

I keep waiting for Juergen to fly his improved 282 Kolibri.....I believe he is a perfectionist, but I'm still hoping for any day now ;).
 
Way back, almost at the beginning, the Navy flight school at Pensacola equipped the helicopter school with Kamans.

But they gave them up; they were too easy to fly and didn’t prepare pilots to fly tail rotor helicopters.
 
Floyd had some logging Kamans one they pulled out the floor and the other had an engine failure and the auto had a big surprise for the pilot, yaw reversal and to boot he kicked full right peddle at the start 'it spun in and rolled down a hill, pilot lived and learned, He didn't need peddle at all.:spy:
 
I read a article by a Navy Kaman pilot and his love affair with his H-43. As Chuck said, it was an easy flying machine and great for plucking pilots out of the sea, directing its downwash to control deck fires, etc.

If it wasn't for the H-43 rotor blade tips being near head level at the sides, I believe the men who use and needed them would still have them. Like the Kmax, they could have had the higher masts and a turbine engine and be right up to snuff for today's work.
 
Where differential torque is used for yaw control and linked to the pedals, there is a reversal when going from powered flight to autorotation.

Dick DeGraw had a reversing mechanism linked to the collective so that the pedals worked the same way in both auto and powered flight.
 
Somewhere in my brain's memory bank, I recall an old film whereas a woman (I think she was labeled as a "house wife") with no aviation experience was taught to fly the Flettner 282 in less than two hours of ground instruction.

The following link I talk about Charlie Kaman as told to me by Retired USMC Aviator, Hal Knowles (who passed away December 2014).

http://www.rotaryforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29268

The Syncropter is a very stable design. The following link I talk about the use of Kaman Syncropters as unmanned aerial platforms.

http://www.rotaryforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33857

I know after the war, Anton Flettner came to the US and became the Chief Designer of Kaman Aircraft and was responsible in designing the HH-43 Huskie.

Wayne
 
Last edited:
A young lady (from Russia?) offers a 1/18th scale model of the Fl282. Quite likely this is the model from my post #8, I have no idea what the deal between the two is, or whether there is one.
There are the same highly detailed 3D cad drawings as in post #8 which definitely warranted including it in the "TBP&P" section. The model is available here:
http://www.shapeways.com/product/VTUAS9MD4/1-18-scale-flettner-fl-282-v21-kolibri-model-kit?li=shareProduct
Building instructions can be downloaded from the site as well (somewhere half way down the page) that worked for me only by right clicking on the download button in the new tab that opens and selecting "save link as"
The 3D cad drawings can be downloaded from here, you have to join that community though:
https://grabcad.com/library/flettner-fl-282-v21-kolibri-scale-model-1
There is a bonus pic of the young lady on both sites...;-)



Enjoy!
 
Last edited:
Very cool CAD drawings; thanks for the post, kolibri282.
This helo still has very nice performance numbers even today.
I wonder if it's financially feasible to mfg. now?

Kolibri
 
I wonder if it's financially feasible to mfg. now
The main snag, IMO, would be the main gear box. To manufacture such a complex assembly is definitely beyond amateurs. You might be able to redesign the ship to use a system along the lines of Dick DeGraw. That would surely be one heck of a project.....
 
Top