My interest in round winged aircraft was begun several years back when
I stumbled across one stored in the rafters of a garage/shed that was
once a hanger. All that was left was the wood and canvas "rotor" which
would have been attached to a DH.4. The lower wing was shortened, but
left in place, as were the tail unit, landing gear, engine and
cowling. The circular device was attached to a shaft between the
cockpits.
As the aircraft picked up speed the "rotor" began rotating, creating
lift. An autogyro, right? But wait. As the speed increased the
"rotor", which was cut into a spiral, expanded like a De Vinci
airscrew, giving tremendous lift. Cool, huh?
I have photos of the thing and copies of the patent. It never made it
as far as being attached to an aircraft as the arrival of slats and
flaps ended the need. The inventor, Marin County's first Sheriff, went
on to become the first county fish and game officer as well. He
patrolled from Stinson Beach where his hanger was/is. On one occasion
he exchanged gun fire with poachers in West Marin.
After this batch of round wings I may attempt Selmer's odd machine.
Cheers,
Tom
some...@some.domain wrote:
> >I'm a diehard fan of two wings and round engines, but round wings and two
> >engines? Hmm....
> >
> two winged, round engines? two engines round here?
The Old Man - 13 Feb 2008 11:53 GMT
On Feb 13, 2:51 am, "maies...@netscape.com" <maies...@netscape.com>
wrote:
> My interest in round winged aircraft was begun several years back when
> I stumbled across one stored in the rafters of a garage/shed that was
[quoted text clipped - 30 lines]
>
> - Show quoted text -
According to the ancient Doug Rolfe book, "Airplanes of the World",
there were a apparently number of fairly successful flying disks going
back to the pioneer era (pre-WWI) like the Kitchen
"Doughnut" (circular biplane wings with central circular cut outs),
Cedric Lee's Disk craft (monoplane), and the Miami University "Flying
Saucer" (parasol disk wing).
Contact me via email at braungart (at) verison (dot) net if you'd like
scans.