Misplaced Pages

#530469

18-576: The Piasecki Helicopter Corporation was founded in 1940 by Frank Piasecki and fellow aeronautics student Harold Venzie as the P-V Engineering Forum (shortened from Piasecki-Venzie); the other partners were F.J. Kosloski, Donald N. Meyers, Elliott Daland, and Walter Swartz. The first design from P-V Engineering was the PV-1, a rotorless-tail design that used a tapering tail cone and pressurized air to suppress main rotor torque. Venzie left

36-643: A competitive downselect of four competing technologies. As part of that effort, the company flew the world's first autonomous autogyro . The company was the successful bidder when the US Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command awarded a demonstration contract to serve as a testbed to validate the "Vectored Thrust Ducted Propeller" system. Piasecki developed and flight-tested the X-49 experimental compound helicopter, with its first flight in 2007, later completing all Phase 1 requirements. Piasecki bid on

54-572: A larger version, which was designated V-114 . With the pressure to produce two relatively new designs, Vertol again ran into financial pressure and was acquired by Boeing on March 30, 1960, who renamed it Boeing Vertol . It became the Boeing Helicopter Division in 1987. 1940 in aviation Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

72-781: A smaller tandem-rotor utility helicopter; the resulting prototype, which Piasecki called the PV-14, was designated XHJP-1. These went into production as the HUP-1 (PV-18), with the first variants delivered to both the Navy and the United States Army (as the H-25) in 1949; in total, 339 were delivered to the militaries of the United States, Canada, and France by 1954. The HUP was designed with overlapping main rotor blades, which reduced

90-482: Is based in Essington, Pennsylvania and is run by Frank Piasecki's sons; Frederick Weyerhaeuser Piasecki is chairman and John Weyerhaeuser Piasecki is president and CEO. In 2005, the company was selected by the United States Army as the prime contractor for two Future Combat Systems (FCS) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems The FCS Class III UAV system contract was awarded to the company in late 2006 following

108-486: The Future Vertical Lift program, but was not chosen when that project moved into its Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) phase in 2013. In December 2018, Piasecki announced Air Scout unmanned air system (UAS), it is designed to meet emerging cargo logistics requirements consistent with UAS Classification Group 3. Air Scout is sized at 300lbs, with payload potential of 50-150 lbs. In 2021,

126-730: The Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center adopted Piasecki's Mobile Multiple Mission Module (M4) as their research asset. M4 was designed to accommodate cargo, patients, troops or a combination of any of these with its rapidly reconfigurable interior. It was planned to be flown using the Aerial Reconfigurable Embedded System (ARES) in 2023. Piasecki is working for the PA-890, an electric powered helicopter with targets for lower operating cost, reduced noise, and zero direct emissions. The airport

144-724: The Coast Guard. In 1949, Piasecki provided the H-21 Workhorse to the United States Air Force , an improved version of the HRP-2 with a more powerful Wright R-1820 Cyclone radial engine. Piasecki's tandem-rotor helicopters flew higher than competing single rotor designs, and offered a smoother ride. At approximately the same time the HRP-1 and HRP-2 were being developed, the Navy commissioned Piasecki to design

162-676: The bylaws to bar Piasecki's re-election as a director, on the grounds that he was running a rival company. In 1956, Vertol began developing a successor to the HUP with improved lift capacity by using turboshaft engines. The project was designated Vertol Model 107 (V-107) , and a prototype first flew on April 22, 1958. Impressed, the Army awarded a contract for ten production aircraft (then designated YHC-1A) in June and later asked Vertol in March 1959 to produce

180-613: The capital to fund production, the company was reorganized and renamed to the Piasecki Helicopter Corporation in 1946 , with Laurance Rockefeller and A. Felix du Pont Jr. taking a controlling interest of 51% in exchange for $ 500,000. After constructing two more prototypes (designated XHRP-1), the PV-3 would go into production as the HRP-1 in 1947 . The HRP-1 was commonly nicknamed the "flying banana" because of

198-470: The details below. Request from 172.68.168.236 via cp1112 cp1112, Varnish XID 946728730 Upstream caches: cp1112 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:41:12 GMT Piasecki Aircraft The Piasecki Aircraft Corporation ( PiAC ) is a manufacturer of aircraft , principally advanced rotorcraft . It was founded by American vertical flight pioneer Frank Piasecki to develop compound helicopters and other advanced rotorcraft after he

SECTION 10

#1732783272531

216-448: The development of a follow-on prototype, signing a contract on January 1, 1944; this marked the start of the design and sale of a series of tandem rotor helicopters to the Navy. The resulting PV-3 became the world's first successful tandem rotor design. The PV-3 first flew on March 7, 1945 and bore the Navy designation XHRP-X; it was larger and capable of lifting more than the contemporary Sikorsky designs. Because P-V Engineering lacked

234-688: The firm in 1943. The PV-2 (NX-37061) was a more conventional design and became the third helicopter flown in the United States (following Igor Sikorsky 's VS-300 and Sikorsky R-4 ). It was designed and flown by Frank Piasecki on April 11, 1943 . Piasecki had limited pilot experience; the PV-2 was tethered to the ground as a safety measure, but the clothesline he used broke. He towed the helicopter behind his car in October 1943 to Washington, DC to demonstrate it to federal government officials; because

252-521: The project. The majority owners eventually lost faith in Frank Piasecki's leadership and by May 1956 he was forced out of the company. He had formed a new company, Piasecki Aircraft Corporation to pursue the development of compound helicopters and other rotorcraft. In two successive special stockholders' meetings the board then changed the name of Piasecki Helicopter to Vertol (for vertical take-off and landing ) Aircraft Corporation and amended

270-524: The size so they could be carried on aircraft carrier elevators. Don R. Berlin was brought in as president and director of Piasecki Helicopters in 1953, while Frank Piasecki was chairman of the board. Under Piasecki, the company began the PV-15 large transport tandem helicopter project (designated H-16 ). The prototype PV-15 was first flown in 1953, but a fatal crash in January 1956 led to the cancellation of

288-413: The upward angle of the aft fuselage which ensured the large rotors did not hit each other in flight. The nickname would later be applied to other Piasecki tandem-rotor helicopters of similar design. An evolutionary follow-on design to the HRP-1, designated HRP-2, used an all-metal skin and switched crew seating to side-by-side instead of tandem; however, the limited power meant only five were built, all for

306-626: The wheels had no bearings, he had to stop every 10 to 15 minutes to cool them. When asked to show his pilot's license following the demonstration in Washington, Piasecki admitted he did not have one and he was issued the first helicopter pilot's license on October 20, 1943, by the Civil Aviation Administration . With the successful demonstration of the PV-2, Piasecki convinced the United States Navy to fund

324-487: Was ousted from the leadership of his first company, Piasecki Helicopter . The company's origins dated back to 1936 with the formation of the P-V Engineering Forum in 1940 and it was renamed the Piasecki Helicopter Corporation in 1946. After a falling out with other owners, Frank Piasecki and some of his design team left to form Piasecki Aircraft Corporation in 1955. The Piasecki Aircraft Corporation

#530469