What ever happened to...?

gyroplanes

FAA DAR Gyropilot
Joined
Mar 18, 2004
Messages
6,205
Location
Lansing, Illinois (Chicago South Suburb)
Aircraft
(1) Air Command, (1) Bensen glider project (1) Air Command 2 place kit, (1) Sycamore gyro
Total Flight Time
2650
Rotordyne blades?

Original Skywheels?

Rotorhawk blades?

Bensen blades?

Brock Blades?

I have had these questions come up a lot recently and don't know the answers. anybody know the status of these blades?????????????
 
Neal Carnes who produced RotorHawk blades died a number of years ago, i'm not sure if anyone took over production or not.
 
gyroplanes;n1128697 said:
Rotordyne blades?

Original Skywheels?

Rotorhawk blades?

Bensen blades?

Brock Blades?

I have had these questions come up a lot recently and don't know the answers. anybody know the status of these blades?????????????

Ken Brock died in an experimental aircraft accident while landing at his private strip at El Mirage maybe ten years ago. Its been a while but I believe Marie Brock told me the machine shop business of Ken's was sold and the new owner did not want to pursue making gyros as they were a very small part of Ken's business. I also seem to recall that some of their gyro tooling went to some of the employees but no one continued to manufacture any of the Ken Brock gyros or parts as far as I have heard.
 
The rotordyne blades production rights and tooling was bought by Jerry Barnett ,after he passed away his family still has the tooling and production rights ,it might change since then ,this info is about 5 years old ,the bensen blades rights and tooling was bought by Ken Brock and then after his tragic accident was sold by his wife Maria to a guy name Rodger in Riverside California ,Yuri bought the tooling and production righs I believe last year and made few sets of blades which were test flown by Teddy at el mirage last year ,since Yuri died in accident the future of the brock /bensen blades is unknown .
 
I have a set of rotordyne blades and l did work for rotordyne back when ray and Tom owned it, and then when bob owned it,and he sold it to lazlow in
burbank
 
I thought we would get to the bottom of this.
We used to have quite a selection of rotor blades available, most now appear to be lost to history.
 
It would be nice if there was a cost for buying the rights to any of those rotor blades. If anyone has any information pass it on.
Does anyone have a list of current manufacturers.
 
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And now Ernie B. has stopped making Dragon Wings.........:eek::sad:

Cheers
Erik
 
I called Ernie, left a message, and he hasn't returned my call...
 
rcflier;n1129486 said:
And now Ernie B. has stopped making Dragon Wings.........:eek::sad:

Cheers
Erik

Say WHAT !????????
 
TJPUMPHREY;n1129515 said:
His website says contact Luminati Aerospace.

"and a new enabling technology we are making perpetual stratospheric flight currently possible". Internet to the unwashed masses.

Now I can be contacted by "Princes and Barristers" from all over the world who will inform me of my new great wealth.
 
I guess we can go back to making our own rotor blades down in the basement or out in the garage.
 
Sportcopter Makes blades $$$$$ in the U.S.

All of the other Mfg's are overseas.

Slywheels almost started back up.
 
The Rotordyne tooling and design passed through several owners; some better than others. I was a dealer for Rotordyne during the time when Tracy Hansen owned it. He seemed to be a responsible manufacturer.

The last I heard, Jerrie Barnett had acquired Rotordyne, but of course he's been gone for several years now.

The Rotordyne airfoil section was't the most efficient, but it worked. The metal-to-metal bonding held up reasonably well when done properly. Not all successor owners followed the Phaneufs' full bonding procedure (Tracy did). Skipping steps did result in some de-bonding. Fortunately, with full wraparound skins, de-bonding tended not to be catastrophic. It was possible to rivet the skins after the fact if the bonds failed.

Tom, as our official rescuer of orphan gyro parts lines, are you thinking of going into the blade business?
 
I once measured the lift/drag ratios of a number of rotors by ground observation of rotor disc angle of attack as the gyro flew past the observation point at 50 mph. There were of course errors resulting from using the aircraft’s uncalibrated ASI.
The lift/drag ratio of a rotor = 1/(tan of disc angle). Thus, if a rotor flies at a disc angle 10º, its L/D ratio = 5.67:1 and if the gyro weighs 500 lbs, its rotor drag = 88 lbs.
The measurements were published in a SRC a number of years ago and from memory, were about like this:

DWs…………………...............8:1
Skywheels………..…....7:1
Rotordyne…….…….....6:1
Stanzee……….…….........6:1
Bensen metal……….5:1

The Bensen metal blades used a modification of the NACA 8H12 airfoil but suffered from air pumping losses via gaps between upper skin segments.

Some gyro pilots confuse lift with drag; a low drag rotor is often proclaimed to have “high lift” because it has more power left over from dragging the rotor through the air, enabling higher performance. Also, tail heavy rotors that are unstable Vs angle of attack, pitching nose up in response to an upward gust are frequently believed to be “high lift”.
 
Gary Layzell still makes an updated version of Rotordyne blades. He has recently moved all his kit back from France to the UK so I expect will start again soon. Normally seen on the AV18 and Merlin gyros. He is on [email protected] - probably needs a few orders to get going.
 
Someone a few years back was still making Brock metal blades. Do not know if they are still being made by that person. Has anyone used Brock blades.
 
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