Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 6, 2024 16:03:44 GMT 12
Does anyone know more about this? It has me baffled. I'd like to see a photo of it. From The Press, 8 October 1957:
Vertical Take-Off By Novel Timaru Aircraft
(New Zealand Press Association)
TIMARU, October 7.
The first vertical take-off to be made by an engineless aircraft in New Zealand has been accomplished at Levels, the Timaru airport. The aircraft, which is known as a Sky-Ski, and which can be described as a helicopter-glider, rose to a height of about 5ft during an experimental flight. At the controls was the designer and builder, Mr George Nicholson, chief engineer for Aero Tech, Ltd., an aircraft engineering firm at the airport.
Made before a handful of the company’s employees — the only men who until recently knew that the aircraft was being built — the flight was the culmination of six years’ planning by Mr Nicholson, an Englishman who came to the Dominion seven years ago.
In his investigations, Mr Nicholson has been aided by the principle of design employed by the American inventor of a similar machine, the gyro-glider. Mr Nicholson says the Sky-Ski is “half his and half mine.”
The open framework of Mr Nicholson’s Sky-Ski is of a tubular steel. It has a stabilising rudder at the rear (a helicopter has a revolving rotor), and the two-bladed rotor giving lift to the machine has a span of 18ft. The bodywork is 8ft 6in long and 4ft 2in wide.
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The principle of the design is that the aircraft rises from the ground when sufficient lift is gained from the rotor blades revolving in the wind. This lift can be obtained easily enough by towing the aircraft along the ground at speed as is done with a conventional glider. In an early test at the airport, Mr Nicholson’s Sky-Ski rose about 15ft with Mr A. D. Melhopt, the firm’s manager and a private pilot, at the controls.
Mr Nicholson designed rotor blades which would revolve fast enough in a 15-knot wind to lift a weight of up to 250lb. The first vertical take-off in New Zealand was achieved by accident. Mr Nicholson was sitting at the controls of his prototype with the rotor spinning freely in the 15-knot breeze when he moved the control column toward his body. The Sky-Ski rose slowly then dropped to the ground again.
Quick to realise what had happened, Mr Nicholson pulled on the column again and the Sky-Ski was in the air. Mr Nicholson found he was able to lift the two rear wheels of the tricycle undercarriage off the ground alternately and control the direction of the aircraft by moving the pedals connected to the rear stabiliser.
During a subsequent experiment, the rotor blades touched the ground and the tips were broken, but this bad luck did not deter the builder, who has repaired the blades in readiness for further flights. Mr Nicholson, who began construction on the glider 18 months ago. plans to develop his Sky-Ski further. He hopes to produce a soaring glider and a powered aircraft capable of carrying the weight of a man.
Vertical Take-Off By Novel Timaru Aircraft
(New Zealand Press Association)
TIMARU, October 7.
The first vertical take-off to be made by an engineless aircraft in New Zealand has been accomplished at Levels, the Timaru airport. The aircraft, which is known as a Sky-Ski, and which can be described as a helicopter-glider, rose to a height of about 5ft during an experimental flight. At the controls was the designer and builder, Mr George Nicholson, chief engineer for Aero Tech, Ltd., an aircraft engineering firm at the airport.
Made before a handful of the company’s employees — the only men who until recently knew that the aircraft was being built — the flight was the culmination of six years’ planning by Mr Nicholson, an Englishman who came to the Dominion seven years ago.
In his investigations, Mr Nicholson has been aided by the principle of design employed by the American inventor of a similar machine, the gyro-glider. Mr Nicholson says the Sky-Ski is “half his and half mine.”
The open framework of Mr Nicholson’s Sky-Ski is of a tubular steel. It has a stabilising rudder at the rear (a helicopter has a revolving rotor), and the two-bladed rotor giving lift to the machine has a span of 18ft. The bodywork is 8ft 6in long and 4ft 2in wide.
Powered by Wind
The principle of the design is that the aircraft rises from the ground when sufficient lift is gained from the rotor blades revolving in the wind. This lift can be obtained easily enough by towing the aircraft along the ground at speed as is done with a conventional glider. In an early test at the airport, Mr Nicholson’s Sky-Ski rose about 15ft with Mr A. D. Melhopt, the firm’s manager and a private pilot, at the controls.
Mr Nicholson designed rotor blades which would revolve fast enough in a 15-knot wind to lift a weight of up to 250lb. The first vertical take-off in New Zealand was achieved by accident. Mr Nicholson was sitting at the controls of his prototype with the rotor spinning freely in the 15-knot breeze when he moved the control column toward his body. The Sky-Ski rose slowly then dropped to the ground again.
Quick to realise what had happened, Mr Nicholson pulled on the column again and the Sky-Ski was in the air. Mr Nicholson found he was able to lift the two rear wheels of the tricycle undercarriage off the ground alternately and control the direction of the aircraft by moving the pedals connected to the rear stabiliser.
During a subsequent experiment, the rotor blades touched the ground and the tips were broken, but this bad luck did not deter the builder, who has repaired the blades in readiness for further flights. Mr Nicholson, who began construction on the glider 18 months ago. plans to develop his Sky-Ski further. He hopes to produce a soaring glider and a powered aircraft capable of carrying the weight of a man.
