Helicopters?! will it ever be possible?

[sorak]

Originally Posted by swiss

in 1940?

are you drunk?

So your saying there was no helicopters in the 1940's ? are you on crack-cocaine?

[swiss]

Originally Posted by sorak

So your saying there was no helicopters in the 1940's ?

Exactly - in 1940(without pl "s").
Some Prototypes maybe, but in service, no.

are you on crack-cocaine?

Sorry, haven't done any coke in the last 3 years. Why, are you selling?

[sorak]

Originally Posted by swiss

Exactly - in 1940(without pl "s").
Some Prototypes maybe, but in service, no.

Sorry, haven't done any coke in the last 3 years. Why, are you selling?

Here is just one. And it even starred in the famous MASH tv show.


No more crack for you.

[zapatista]

not sure if there were "helicopters" in 1939-1940 period, but oleg already indicated they had intended to included some gyrocopter (autogyro) in BoB

so the answer is yes, it is possible, and i think is already included (presuming they finished that aircraft bug free in time, if not it should be in an update patch soon), and presuming you dont mind flying a gyrocopter instead of an helicopter

a little history on the topic:

If we except Leonardo da Vinci drawings, the history of rotary wings goes way back. In 1784, Launois and Bienvenue, two French physicians, presented to Paris Academy of Science the model of "a device with propeller that could fly". On August 21, 1907, the Breguet brothers and professor Richet would test the first 4-rotor aircraft, that was able to hoover 1 meter above the ground. Sure, it could not really fly... yet !

Just after the first World war, a few pilots found that flying these strange fixed-wings machines could be somewhat dangerous, due to their incredible ability to stall and to kill their pilots.

Some of them decided to research aircrafts that could not stall at all - therefore making flight safer. We could name there in France Henri Mignet, whose "living wing" would prove to be a safe concept for conventional aircrafts.

But, in parallel, in Spain, Juan de la Cierva took another direction: he believed that a "rotating wing" would do the trick. And it did, indeed ! Juan would become, after many trials and prototypes, the founder of the gyrocopter aircraft category. He would cross the Channel in flight in 1928.

Development of the gyrocopter continued between the two wars, both in Europe and the USA. During WWII - an often forgotten history - they saw active duty, for instance as the mean for calibrating British radars, or as trailed observers on German submarines.

In parallel, the development of the helicopter, which did not saw anything really flying until 1937, continued as well.

Mainly for psychological reasons, the helicopter would then take over the gyrocopter for a good decade - military and civils alike not really understanding how a free-rotating rotor could, much more safely than a powered one, ensure the sustentation of an aircraft.

ps: sorak, the MASH show is from the korean war period in the 1950's

this website has a good brief history on the topic, including differences between gyrocpters and helicopters http://www.phenix.aero/PHE-1200.html

[sorak]

Originally Posted by zapatista

not sure if there were "helicopters" in 1939-1940 period, but oleg already indicated they had intended to included some gyrocopter (autogyro) in BoB

so the answer is yes, it is possible, and i think is already included (presuming they finished that aircraft bug free in time, if not it should be in an update patch soon), and presuming you dont mind flying a gyrocopter instead of an helicopter

a little history on the topic:



ps: sorak, the MASH show is from the korean war period in the 1950's

Still.. the actual helicopter came from the 40's

Game doesnt have to stay in the early 40's either..


but very cool that gyrocopters will be in it !

[Hoverbug]

Originally Posted by sorak

Still.. the actual helicopter came from the 40's

Game doesnt have to stay in the early 40's either..


but very cool that gyrocopters will be in it !

Britain, France, the Soviet Union and Japan all employed autogiros on the battlefield in WWII. Their wartime contribution was fairly inconsequential, though Japan claimed an American sub sunk by a Kayaba (seems like a stretch).

[swiss]

Originally Posted by sorak

Still.. the actual helicopter came from the 40's

Game doesnt have to stay in the early 40's either..


but very cool that gyrocopters will be in it !

So you were talking about future add-on like Korea - an not Bob?

Sure.... lol

[zapatista]

i think the German Focke-Wulf Fw 61 might technically be labled a helicopter and not gyrocopter (and made its initial flight in June 1936) , but somebody with more factual knowledge might want to comment

As a class of vehicle the helicopter had no single inventor, any more than the fixed-wing aeroplane did. Much of the credit for the modern helicopter goes, deservedly, to Igor Sikorsky; but in Britain, France, Italy, Germany and the U.S.S.R. contemporaries of Sikorsky all produced significant designs well before the historic VS-300 had left the ground.

High on the short list of helicopter pioneers must come the name of Doktor Heinrich Karl Johann Focke, whose Fw 61 made its first free flight, lasting 28 seconds, on 26 June 1936. This was, coincidentally, exactly one year after the less-publicised flight of the Breguet-Dorand machine, which can thus claim to have been the first really practical helicopter to have flown in Europe. But the Fw 61, once it had begun to fly, rapidly proved itself a much superior machine to the Breguet, not only as regards performance but as a practical basic design capable of much further development.

The Focke-Achgelis GmbH was an offshoot of the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau, established after Focke had been dismissed from the latter company by the Nazis as a political embarrassment. Focke's first experience of rotorcraft construction and operation was gained from building the Cierva C.19 and C.30 autogiros under licence, and then in 1934 he built and flew successfully a scale model helicopter that rose to a height of some 18m. There followed a period of research into, and testing of, rotor and transmission systems before, in 1936, the Fw 61 prototype made its appearance.

from http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/fw-61.php

[Hoverbug]

Originally Posted by zapatista

not sure if there were "helicopters" in 1939-1940 period, but oleg already indicated they had intended to included some gyrocopter (autogyro) in BoB

so the answer is yes, it is possible, and i think is already included (presuming they finished that aircraft bug free in time, if not it should be in an update patch soon)

a little history on the topic:

The first Hoverfly Is reached the UK at the beginning of 1944. German Fl 282s and Fa 223s were in various forms of service test from 1942 on, but never reached a true operational capability. Their primary contribution to the German war effort was evading capture by advancing allied armies. The U.S. Was the only nation with a true operational helicopter capability with deployments to the Far East from mid '44 on. In the interests of self-aggrandisement, here's an article I wrote on the subject: http://www.airspacemag.com/military-...rom-Luzon.html

[Avimimus]

SoW:BoB is planned to have a Cierva autogyro in it. The autogyro may even become flyable.

This may well pave the way for a Kamov A-7 autogyro (the most heavily armed autogyro to see service during the war...)