Rotor parameters determination of a vertical takeoff gyroplane

Abstract

Nowadays autogyros are becoming increasingly popular in the world of Ultralight aviation. This is not surprising, after all, they have excellent performance in comparison with equivalent airplanes and helicopters, such as: safety, high speed range, ease of control, maneuverability and efficiency in operation (compared to the helicopter). Next level of the autogyro development is the capability of vertical takeoff and landing. Thus, the aircraft with excellent performance combining the aircraft and helicopter, considerably more economical and without an aerodrome basing is provided.Several attempts to design vertically flying autogyro have been made since early 1930s. During that period 32 different models of autogyros were built. However, there are only 3 certified vehicles and only 1 serial. Statistics explicitly is for sure not on the side of such kind of transport, but analyzing each history, we could highlight the basic aspects that possibly prevented jump takeoff autogyro from becoming commercially successful: • absence of the modern autogyros vertical takeoff theory (modern apparatuses significantly differ from autogyros designed in 1930s);• a long way to the prototype creating, that means high costs and big risks for project (on average normally jumping takeoff autogyro was built about 10 years);• the borrowing from helicopter components leads to significant increase in the cost of the apparatus.The analysis of statistics shows that "jumping" autogyro is a reality but it requires fundamental theoretical and practical research to achieve the project's success. In this article the following parameters of the rotor are examined:• geometric parameters of the blade and rotor (aerodynamic airfoil, chord, diameter, etc.)• mass-inertial characteristics (blade weight, revolutions during takeoff and horizontal flight, potential energy, etc.);• an algorithm that determines the jump parameters in accordance with the initial data is created;• recommendations for choosing the parameters for the vertical takeoff autogyros are given.Therefore, taking into account the autogyro vertical takeoff process, it is possible to reduce significantly the risks and to achieve positive results in the creation of a hybrid machine.