Book description
The Fairey Rotodyne was a large British compound helicopter
designed and built by the Fairey Aviation Company and intended for
commercial and military applications. It was considered to be one of
the iconic aviation projects of the 1950s/60s and a bright future was
planned for the aircraft. Widely accepted to be a revolutionary
design, it was economically viable, fast and capable of vertical
take-off and landing from city centre heliports. However, despite the
proven feasibility of this bold concept, the Rotodyne project was
terminated in 1962 due to escalating development costs and unresolved
technical issues. This book seeks to fill a gap in aviation literature
on the history of the Rotodyne, an aircraft ahead of its time.
David Gibbings is a retired RAF engineer/navigator and flight test
engineer for helicopters and aircraft. He worked on the Rotodyne and
with Westland, retiring as Chief Flight Test Engineer. Awarded the Kelly
Johnson award for outstanding achievement in his field by the Society of
Flight Test Engineers, he was the first recipient of the award outside
the US. A qualified private pilot, David now writes articles and gives
lectures.
