Seminar Report
Seminar Report
Seminar Report
1. INTRODUCTION
A study of "Gyroplane" and its historical evolution, general characteristics, flight
characteristics, various designs, potential applications and aerodynamics explaining
its flight is attempted. "Gyroplane" describing an aircraft that gets lift from a freely
turning rotary wing, or rotor blades, and which derives its thrust from an engine-
driven propeller.
The technical challenges and accomplishments in the development of the autogiro are
described. Exactly 80 years ago, the autogiro was the first successful rotating-wing
aircraft, and the first powered, heavier-than-air aircraft to fly other than an airplane.
Unlike a helicopter, the rotor on an autogiro is not powered directly, but turns by the
action of the relative airflow on the blades to produce a phenomenon known as
autorotation. The aerodynamic principles of autorotation are explained and are
combined with the historic technical insights of Juan de la Cierva, who used the
principle to successfully develop and produce the autogiro.
In this machine the fixed wings have been eliminated and the lift is produced by
revolving wings on a vertical shaft projecting from the fuselage of an ordinary
airplane.
However, it doesnt belong to the family of helicopters since in the Autogiro the
wind produced by the motion of the aircraft actuates the blades. This phenomenon is
called Autorotation.
Also there are several improvement in modern design of autogyros to overcome its
all limitations such as hovering, speed,rotor blades, etc. so that they can use for
coastguard or police operations, traffic survey, tourism, etc.
de la Cierva launched the model from atop his home in Murcia, where the rotor spun
freely of its own accord and the model slowly glided softly to the ground.
He had rediscovered the principle of autorotation, which he was to call autogiration.
These first experiments with models were to pavethe way for the design of a
completely new aircraft that Juan de la Cierva was to call an Autogiro.
Ideas of an autogiro, a completely new aircraft with an unpowered rotor. The rotor
provides the lift (or most of it), with forward propulsion being provided by a
conventional tractor or pusher propeller arrangement. This is compared to the
helicopter, where the rotor provides both lift and propulsion.
The name Autogiro was later to be coined by Juan de la Cierva as a proprietary name
for his machines, but when spelled starting with a small a it is normally used as a
generic name for this class of aircraft. Today, gyroplane is the official term used to
describe such an aircraft, although the names autogiro, autogyro, and gyroplane are
often used synonymously.
Unlike the helicopter, the autogiro rotor always operates in the autorotative working
state, where the power to turn the rotor comes from a relative flow that is directed
upward through the rotor disk. The low disk loading (T/A) of an autogiro rotor (and,
therefore, its low induced velocity) means that only a small upward flow normal to
the tip-path plane is necessary to produce autorotation. Therefore, in straight-and-
level forward flight the rotor disk need operate onlywith a slight positive angle of
attack (backward tilt). As long as the machine keeps moving forward through the air,
the rotor will continue to turn and produce lift. Reducing engine power will cause the
machine to slowly descend, and increasing power will cause it to climb. The loss of
the engine is never a problem on an autogiro because the rotor is always in the
autorotative state, and so the machine will descend safely.
The autogiro is mechanically simpler than a shaft-driven helicopter because the
engine gearbox and rotor transmission can be dispensed with. Furthermore, it is not
necessary to develop a separate means of countering torque reaction, as on the
helicopter.
This all significantly reduces weight and also reduces design, production, and capital
costs. Although the autogiro is not a direct-lift machine and cannot not hover (nor was
it designed to be), it requires only minimal forward airspeed to maintain flight.
Through a series of over 30 designs that spanned more than 10 years of development,
Juan de la Cierva proved that his Autogiros were very safe and essentially stall-proof,
and because of their low speed they could be landed in confined areas. Takeoffs
required a short runway tobuildup airspeed, but this was rectified later with the advent
of the jump takeoff technique. This gave the autogiro a capability that was to rival
the future helicopter in terms of overall performance.
a) autogiro
b) helicopter
Fig. 2.2 autogiro rotor a) provides lift, with forward propulsion being
provided by a conventional propeller, compared to the helicopter
b) where the rotor provides both lift and propulsion.
Cierva spotted this problem and suggested use of counter rotating co-axial rotors that
would cancel the asymmetric effect of each other. But this didnt prove much
rewarding as the flow became very complex and the aerodynamics of the individual
rotors changed which caused new problems of aerodynamic moment balance.
He then decided to use compensating rotor in which the pitch of the blades were so
altered as to compensate for asymmetric lift distribution. Although in principle it was
a perfect method, but practically proved to be unrealizable due to its complexity and
hence discarded.
Taking clue from his wind tunnel tests on small models, which had a slight flexible
spar as compared to real full scale machine, which showed different aerodynamic
effect, he provided for mechanical hinges in his rotor that would allow the blades to
flap up and down depending on the equilibrium of the centrifugal, inertial and
aerodynamic forces acting on the blade, thus allowing it to move in response to
change / asymmetry of lift.
failed because of this torsion load e.g. C 30 and hence a symmetric airfoil was used.
This was a design compromise and only later on was cambered airfoil used when
better construction materials were commercially available and viable.
Vertical take off capabilities were also lately incorporated in the autogiros by means
of some mechanical starters which would over spin the rotor when the machine was at
ground so that it could generate sufficient speed for take off without running on
ground.
Later on this was replaced by a variable pitch system that would simultaneously de-
clutch the rotor and increase collective pitch to avoid any torque reaction and lift
vertically.
because it does not power the rotor in flight. To power the rotor in flight typically
requires that it be connected to the engine through drive shafts and gearboxes. These
must be strong enough to handle the torque driving the rotor, and add up to a
significant weight. An autogiro does not need these systems, so it can be made lighter.
Even if the autogiro has these systems for prerotating the rotor for a jump takeoff,
they do not need to be as robust as those in a helicopter because they will not need to
handle the same amount of torque, and also because they are not flight critical, they
don't need to be over designed.
An autogiro can also fly faster than a helicopter. This is due to the fact that the rotor is
providing only lift, whereas the rotor in a helicopter is providing both lift and thrust.
For a rotorcraft to stay balanced, it must produce the same lift on both the advancing
and retreating blades.
Early autogyros required only about 50 feet of runway to take off and could land in
under twenty when airplanes were using hundreds of feet. Later autogyros reduced
their need for a runway to less than fifteen feet, and eventually to vertical take off and
landings. This allows autogyros to be flown from practically anywhere, needing
almost no runway.
6. LIMITATIONS OF AUTOGYROS
1. A spinning rotor causes a lot of drag. In fact, the drag is proportional to the cube
of the rotor rpm. So, the slower the rotor spins- the less drag it creates.
Unfortunately, for conventional rotorcraft, there is a limit to how slow the rotor
can spin. For the aircraft to stay in equilibrium, both sides of the rotor must
produce the same amount of lift. The two big reasons for this are structural and
dynamic. If one side produced more lift than the other, it would create a large
moment that would have to be carried by the rotor head, making the head much
heavier. But even if the rotor head was strong enough, the moment created would
cause the aircraft to roll to the side producing less lift.
2. At very slow speeds, this isn't much of a problem. Both rotor blades see about the
same airflow, so they both make the same lift. However, once you start moving
forward, the velocity component caused by the aircraft's forward speed decreases
the airflow over the retreating blade. So, to maintain lift equilibrium, the angles of
attack of the blades are changed- advancing blade pitch is reduced, and retreating
blade pitch is increased. There are two common ways to do this- The easier to
understand is to directly control the pitch of the blades as they spin, to control
them cyclically. In a rotorcraft with cyclic pitch control, the blade is pitched up
and down with each revolution. The easier method to implement is flapping. The
blades are put on hinges which allow them to flap up and down. The advancing
blade flaps up, and the retreating blade flaps down. The change in airflow due to
the flapping is what causes the change in angle of attack, so the blades still remain
in lift equilibrium.
3. So- because of that decreased airflow over the retreating blade- its angle of attack
must be increased to compensate. Well, there gets to be a point where the angle of
attack can't be increased enough to create enough lift- the blade would stall from
being at too high of an angle of attack. But by increasing the rpm of the rotor, the
velocity over the retreating blade is increased, so it can produce more lift at a
lower angle of attack and maintain lift equilibrium.
4. Because of the high drag- they're not suited to it (a fixed wing plane could fly fast
much more efficiently), but at a certain point, the drag actually goes up much
faster than the cube of the rpm. Remember that the velocity over each blade is the
vector sum of the rotor velocity and the aircraft velocity. This is what decreases
the velocity over the retreating blade. It also increases the velocity over the
advancing blade. Well, because of that high rotor rpm to keep enough airflow over
the retreating blade, the advancing blade ends up going much faster than the rest
of the aircraft. It will reach the speed of sound a lot sooner. In fact, even before an
airfoil reaches the speed of sound, local pockets of supersonic flow appear
because the airfoil acclerates the air. That supersonic flow really increases drag on
the rotor. Not only does this translate into more drag on the aircraft- it means that
more power must be used to drive the rotor.
5. Also due to the engine powered rotor at the tail of autogyro body ih is not able to
HOWER freely in air.
7. DEVELOPMENTS IN AUTOGYROS
7.1 SPEED
A slowed rotor allows the aircraft to fly at 450 kts without the rotor advancing tip
speed exceeding Mach .95 (there are some business jets where the whole aircraft flies
at mach .92+)
acceleration over a large stroke to provide safe 24 36 ft/sec impact landings. The
gear can be light weight since the loads are nearly constant, spread over the entire
stroke.
a) Towering takeoff
b) Jump takeoff
Fig. 8.1 towering and jump takeoff capability gave the autogiro a
capability rivaling a helicopter.
Landing tests with the autogiro were conducted at the NACA in 1934 by Peck53 and
helped quantify the poor roll control response autogiros at very low airspeed. This
was a direct result of the use of conventional airplane control surfaces (ailerons).
Because the autogiro could be landed at almost zero airspeed, the ineffectiveness of
the ailerons under these conditions was a serious deficiency in the machines handling
qualities. The problem resulted in numerous mishaps, where inexperienced pilots
would land the machine on one wheel only, and a wing tip or blade tip would strike
the ground. Although de la Cierva had initially investigated a disk tilting mechanism
on the C-4 to provide roll, the control forces were found to be too heavy for the pilot.
By 1931 de la Cierva had introduced the directly orientable rotor control. This
rocking-head design solved the control problem by tilting the entire rotor shaft in
any direction and so inclining the rotor lift force. This innovation allowed him to
finally dispense with the stub wings and the elevator.
In 1934 Raoul Hafner introduced the spider blade-pitch control system to autogiros.
Hafner was a competitor with de la Cierva, and the Hafner Gyroplane Company built
and flew their first machine, the A.R. III, in September 1935. The novel spider
mechanism provided a means of increasing collective pitch on the rotor blades and
also using cyclic pitch to simultaneously tilt the rotor disk. This was done without
tilting the rotor shaft with a control stick, as was used in de la Ciervas direct control
system. Hafners mechanism was a significant advance on de la Ciervas system, and
in addition to enabling jump or towering take-offs it offered the pilot light and
responsive flight controls. With this feature the autogiro was to closely rival future
helicopters in handling and performance capability.
Because the rotor of the autogiro is unpowered in flight, the rotor needs to be brought
up to speed by some means before takeoff. On the earliest machines this was done by
taxiing the aircraft around on the ground, but this was not very effective. Later, a
spinning-top method was used, where a rope was wound around pegs mounted on
the bottom of the blades, the other end of the rope being fixed to the ground. As the
machine moved away and picked up speed, the rotor speed was increased.
Alternatively, the rope could be pulled manually to start the rotor. Although de la
Cierva had previously patented a mechanical starter for his Autogiros, he had resisted
its use because it was too heavy. In 1929 the Cierva Model C-12 used a biplane tail,
which could deflect the propeller slipstream to help spin the rotor.Eventually, Pitcairn
engineers developed a lightweight mechanical prerotator, and from 1930 onward
nearly all autogiros were equipped with one.
In later developments of the autogiro, a variable pitch system was used such that the
blades could be set to flat pitch when the autogiro was on the ground and increased to
a fixed pitch for normal flight. To perform a jump takeoff with this system, the pilot
first oversped the rotor, then rapidly applied collective pitch while declutching the
rotor to avoid any torque reaction.
The first published NACA report on the autogiro was authored by Wheatley, which
provided the first authoritative baseline measurement on the performance of the PCA
2 autogiro. Measurements of rates of descents and glide angles were obtained along
with estimates of rotor lift-to-drag ratio. Separate tests of the rotor were also
conducted in the wind tunnel, allowing quantification of the rotor performance alone
compared to the complete PCA-2 aircraft. As shown in the aerodynamic efficiency of
the autogirowas relatively poor compared to an airplane, with a maximum lift-to-drag
ratio (L/D) of only about 4.5. The differences between the rotor alone and the
complete aircraft reflect the high parasitic drag of the airframe. However, to put
results in perspective the rotoralone performance, which had a maximum L/D of
about seven, is comparable to that of a modern helicopter rotor (see Fig.). For higher
advance ratios (or tip-speed ratio) the helicopter rotor L/D drops off markedly because
of retreating blade stall and advancing blade compressibility effects, whereas the
autogiro rotor retains a L/D of five at =0.7.
If the car accelerated too quickly (too high an advance ratio) or the shaft was tilted too
far back early in the procedure, the rotor rpm would decrease, accompanied by blade
flapping to the stops, the so called mast bumping phenomenon, which could
damage the rotor or the rotor head assembly. Many early pilots had trouble doing the
correct procedure properly. Typically the first take-off ground run in this case was on
the order of 1000 ft, but subsequent takeoffs could be done with a short ground roll on
the order of a hundred feet if automobile speed and rotor shaft angle were handled
properly. Accomplishing this procedure in a float mounted extremely difficult if there
was much wave action. In that case, it was very difficult to avoid some mast bumping.
The term hump speed then came to be applied to the minimum rpm that had to be
achieved by hand to make a successful takeoff.
In more recent years, sport gyroplanes have been designed with a small (typically one
hp) motor mounted at the top of the rotor mast to spin the rotor up to approximately
200 rpm prior to starting the takeoff roll. With this addition, the take-off roll could be
reduced to 100 feet. Alternatively, flexible shaft drives have been used for a power
takeoff from the main engine to pre-rotate the rotor for takeoff.
11. CONCLUSION
Autogiros were the first successful rotary wing aircraft and first heavier than air
aircraft to fly successfully other than conventional airplane. Although they are not the
main stay in modern aviation but it is unquestionable that the step by step and
systematic way in which the designers and engineers approached and solved the
problems led to development of both theoretical and technical knowledge in field of
rotary wing flight that proved critical to development of Helicopters.
Its principles being combined with current (and future) technology and innovative
forward thinking toward ambitious new designs. This work also continues largely
with private funds. However, this fabled ugly duckling might be getting a new lease
on life, and the modern autogiro and gyroplane can have very important future roles
to play in large military and commercial applications. If the innovations of the
autogiro can be successfully combined with the capabilities of helicopters and also the
speed and range attributes of fixed-wing aircraft, then modern gyroplanes could be
used to meet an almost limitless variety of military missions and civil applications.
Only time will tell, but the renewed interest in the unique capabilities of the gyroplane
can clearly benefit from both the technical knowledge and the powerful mathematical
models and analytic design tools that have evolved over the last 50 years of helicopter
development.
REFERENCES
1. Stewart Houston On the modelling of gyroplane flight dynamics, Progress in
Aerospace Sciences, 6 November 2016, Pages 4358
2. J. Gordon Leishman Development of the Autogiro: A Technical Perspective,
Journal of aircraft, Vol. 41, No. 4, JulyAugust 2004, Pages 765-780
3. Anand Saxena GYROPLANE - A Technical Essay on the Gyroplane ,
Researchgate, 25 February 2015
4. C. A. Lopez- Dynamics and Stability of an Auto rotating Rotor/Wing Unmanned
Aircraft, Journal of guidance, control, and dynamics, vol. 27, no. 2, MarchApril
2004, Pages 258-269