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In 1956, Gyrodyne entered the competition to produce a single seat "personal" helicopter for operation off destroyer heli-decks for fleet observation, and for battlefield support, and built ten examples of the XRON-1 for the U.S. Navy. These also had a coaxial rotor layout and a 40hp Nelson H.59 engine - later replaced by a 60hp Porsche. This experiment led to development of the QH-50 unmanned drone versions of the XRON-1 and Gyrodyne delivered over 60 production QH-50Cs for operation from Naval frigates. R.Simpson "Airlife's Helicopter and Rotorcraft", 1998
Technical data for QH-50C
Engine: 1 x T50-BO8A turboshaft, rated at 243kW,
rotor diameter: 6m,
take-off weight: 1036kg,
empty weight: 524kg,
max speed: 148km/h,
ceiling: 5000m,
range: 132km,
armament: 2 x Mk-44 torpedos or 1 x Mk-46 torpedo
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Philip Wolfe, e-mail, 30.07.2009 | reply |
I was the project officer on this program at Patuxant River, Naval Air Test Center. To bad it was not a good delivery system for weapons, it was a good flying machine. |
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