Flettner airplane

Anton Flettner's rotor aircraft

A flettner airplane or rotor airplane is an airplane that has no wings but instead uses the Magnus effect to create lift.^[1] Thus it is similar to the flettner rotor used in a rotor ship. Such airplanes were first built by Anton Flettner. Flettner airplane should not be confused with the cyclogyro, which uses a different aerodynamic effect, but has a similar configuration of rotors.

Although Flettner constructed at least one aircraft, there was no record of them ever having flown. Recently at least one free-flying model has been built and flown.^[2]

History

The development of the rotor aircraft was inspired by Flettner's rotor ship. The rotor ship, the Buckau, now renamed the "Baden-Baden," successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean on 9 May 1926, and docked in New York, where it attracted considerable attention. The image shows the prototype of the rotor aircraft in an American shipyard at Hudson, New York. At that time, corresponding developments were made in Germany already.

iCar 101 Ultimate

The development of this unusual aircraft based on research by Ludwig Prandtl at the Aerodynamic Research Institute (AVA) in Göttingen. Prandtl experimented with rotating cylinders in the wind tunnel. The cylinders created up to ten times more lift than a plane wing.

More recently, the "iCar 101" project suggests the use of Flettner rotors in roadable aircraft design to combine compactness and increased lift potential.^[3]

References

↑ "Whirling Spools Lift This Plane". Popular Science Monthly: 26. November 1930. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
↑ Rotorwing I on YouTube
↑ iCar 101 roadable aircraft with Magnus effect wings

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Flettner airplane.

...the 921-V is reported to have been flown at least once

Types of aircraft by methods of thrust and lift

	Aerostat	Aerodyne
	Lift: Lighter than air gas	Lift: Fixed wing	Lift: Unpowered rotor	Lift: Powered rotor
Unpowered free flight	(Free) balloon	Glider	Helicopter, etc. in autorotation	(None – see note 2)
Tethered or towed	Moored balloon	Kite	Rotor kite	(None – see note 2)
Powered	Airship	Airplane, ornithopter, etc.	Autogyro	Helicopter, gyrodyne

Note 1: A tiltwing or tiltrotor aircraft functions as an aeroplane during normal (horizontal) flight and as a helicopter during low-speed flight.

Note 2: For full-size aircraft with powered rotors the rotor is normally tilted to achieve thrust (e.g. in a helicopter). Some toys (e.g. balloon helicopter) do have a powered rotor with no means to tilt the rotor to produce horizontal thrust.

Note 3: Ground effect vehicles and hovercraft are not included in the table, nor are experimental aircraft with novel thrust / lift solutions (e.g. coleopter, Flying Bedstead, Avrocar and flettner airplane) or balloon-wing hybrids (e.g. kytoon, hybrid airship and hybrid moored balloon).

Flettner airplane

History

See also

References

External links