The Pentecost Hoppi-Copter was a 41kg personal helicopter pack designed to be strapped to an infantryman’s back to make it possible for him to surmount terrain obstacles, but had no landing gear. Conceived by Horace Pentecost, it first flew in 1945, but landing shock problems proved insurmountable.
This ultra-light individual helicopter had two co-axial contra-rotating two-bladed rotors powered by a small two-stroke horizon-tally opposed engine developing about 20 h.p.
The body consisted of a tubular aluminum frame curved to fit over the pilot’s shoulders and attached to the body by harness of the type employed in parachutes; the pilot’s legs were used for landing.
Some twenty hops were made with the use of safety cables attached to the pilot, but this strap-on helicopter ended its career at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
Capital Helicopter Corp was established January 1954 for continued development of C-1 Hoppi-Copter, took over the patents in 1954, and flew a Hoppi-Copter with rotor blademounted pulse jets.
Horace Pentecost became President of the Capital Helicopter Corporation, founded in 1954, on leaving the Hoppicopter concern and retaining his rights in his inventions.
A new type of helicopter, powered by small pulse-jet engines at the blade tips, was also developed by Horace Pentecost.
The 1934 Pennsylvania Aircraft Syndicate XOZ-1 N8602 was a two-place autogyro floatplane, designed by E B Wilford and built from Consolidated (Fleet) XN2Y-2 parts. Only the one was built.
Engine: 110hp Warner Scarab, later 125hp Kinner B-5 and 155hp R-5 Rotor: four-blade Rotor diameter: 32’0″ Max speed: 107 mph Cruise: 90 mph Range: 150 mi Seats: 2
Slavoljub Penkala was interested in flight and decided to buld his own airplane, pretty much making it up as he went along. He patented it in late 1909 and the plane was ready for its first flight by June 1910. The funding came from Penkala’s own income from his pen and pencil factory, and a lot of the work and ideas also came from Dragutin Novak, who joined Penkala earlier the same year.
The Leptir (English: Butterfly)was a single engine, sesquiplane aircraft with conventional landing gear. The open girder fuselage provides an unusually long distance to the tail surfaces, compared to modern aircraft. The flat bottom surface of the fuselage was covered, forming a long thin triangular surface intended to provide lift, which was not functional in level flight. The aircraft was tail heavy with a center of gravity at 70 percent of wing chord.
The first flight occurred on 22 June 1910 with pilot Dragutin Novak. The 1910 Leptir II featured modifications to include skids. The aircraft was crashed several months later.
The CA-10 replica was built in 2010 and known as the Cvjetkovic CA-10 Penkala, bearing the registration of 9A-XCA. It was powered by an 80 hp (60 kW) Rotax 912 with the center of gravity moved forward for safety.
Cvjetkovic CA-10 Penkala
Penkala Biplane Propeller: 2-blade Wingspan: 11 m (36 ft 1 in) Length: 11 m (36 ft 1 in) Empty weight: 330 kg (728 lb) Crew: 1
The Peña Dahu, named for the legendary French mountain animal, is a French amateur-built aircraft that was designed by Louis Peña of Dax, Landes and made available in the form of plans for amateur construction.
First flown on 9 May 1996, the Dahu is intended for mountain flying, aero-towing gliders and touring. It features a cantilever low-wing, a four-seat enclosed cockpit, fixed conventional landing gear and a single engine in tractor configuration.
Peña Dahu
The Dahu is made from wood. Its 9 m (29.5 ft) span wing has an area of 15 sq.m (160 sq ft) and mounts flaps. The recommended engines range in power from 120 to 200 hp (89 to 149 kW) and include the 160 hp (119 kW) Lycoming O-320, 180 hp (134 kW) Lycoming O-360 and the fuel-injected 200 hp (149 kW) Lycoming IO-360 four-stroke powerplants. When equipped with a 120 hp (89 kW) engine the gross weight is limited to 900 kg (1,984 lb) instead of 1,200 kg (2,646 lb).
Peña Dahu
Plans were available in 2012, the 2011 price was €600.
Known officially as the Scout, the P.B.25 was a development of the P.B.23. The most obvious differences were in the design of the nacelle, which was fabric covered, and in the wing cellule, the mainplanes featuring 11 degrees of sweepback and inversely-tapered ailerons. Twenty P.B.25s were ordered by the Admiralty, all but one of these being powered by the 100hp Gnome Monosoupape, the exception having a 110hp Clerget rotary. Armament comprised a single 7.7mm machine gun mounted on the nacelle. The last P.B.25 was delivered to the RNAS in February 1917, by which time this type had acquired an unenviable reputation, the take-off and landing characteristics being particularly hazardous. Apart from poor flying qualities, its performance was inadequate and, being viewed as something of an anachronism, the Scout was quickly discarded.
Max take-off weight: 699 kg / 1541 lb Empty weight: 490 kg / 1080 lb Wingspan: 10.04 m / 33 ft 11 in Length: 7.34 m / 24 ft 1 in Height: 3.17 m / 10 ft 5 in Wing area: 25.73 sq.m / 276.96 sq ft Max. speed: 143 km/h / 89 mph
Designed in 1915 by Noel Pemberton-Billing, and built by the company bearing his name, the P.B.23E single-seat pusher fighting scout biplane was of wooden construction, but the nacelle mounted between the wings and accommodating the pilot was unusual for its time in being covered with light alloy sheet metal. Armament consisted of a single 7.7mm machine gun mounted in the nose of the nacelle and power was provided by an 80hp Le Rhone rotary. The P.B.23E was first flown in September 1915, but was not adopted in its original form, being further developed as the P.B.25.
A single-seat open-cockpit equal span biplane scout aircraft, built by Pemberton-Billing Limited, which later became the Supermarine Aviation Works. Only one P.B.9 was built. The wings had full span spars with the upper and lower wings connected by four pairs of interplane struts. The fuselage had a fixed landing gear with a tail skid. While designed to allow the use of Grome 80 hp engine the prototype P.B.9 was powered by a 50 hp (36 kW) Gnome rotary engine taken from the company’s prototype P.B.1. Using a set of wings that had been obtained from Radley-England it was designed, built and made its first flight within nine days, though for publicity reasons its designer Noel Pemberton Billing claimed it had taken a week (giving rise to the nickname “Seven Day Bus”). It was first flown August 1914. Although the aircraft performed well only the prototype was built. it was later used by the Royal Naval Air Service as a trainer.
Luigi Pellarini was about 30 years old when in 1944 he partnered with Carrozzeria Colli, a Milan motor vehicle and coach-building company, to build his first prototype flying car, the PL 1.
He kept improving his prototypes and put out a new and improved model each of the next several years. L’Ala, an Italian magazine, published a description of his PL-2C, dubbed the Aerauto, in its October 1946 issue.
The PL 2 C is an entirely metal touring aircraft, with folded wings, its dimensions are about 2.20 m width for 6 m of length it can easily move on normal roads, always with the propeller thrust.
The PL 2C structure is the fuselage, with a real chassis, consisting of a tubular beam in welded sheet steel and durall bodywork. On the beam are welded the castle in tubes that support the wing and the engine, as well as all the controls, the undercarriage, the seats and the empennages.
There durall fairing covers the front of the beam and provides a to connect the wing to the engine and to the beam, as well as to form the cabin equipped with two side doors and is easily removable. The wing is cantilever monoplane divided into a fixed centre, and in two collapsible semis. The folded wing remains suspended with the front attachment to the central trunk of the wing. Structure the wing is entirely durall and the cover is 8/10 mm. The attachments are steel. Rivets were widely used in the wing tubulars, rather than bolts. The ailerons have a metal frame in durall and a cover in canvas; they can be simultaneously lowered so as to work as flaps. The horizontal plane is of a similar structure to the wing; there fixed part (whose incidence is adjustable in flight with handwheel) is covered in durall. The vertical plane, split, is structurally similar to the horizontal. The undercarriage is tricycle with low pressure wheels, the rear wheels are equipped with brakes, while the front is connected to the pedals for steering.
The prototype engine is a 60-hp Valter that drives a fixed propeller. The controls are of the usual bar and pedal type, the instrument panel the usual equipment of instruments, the brake is a pedal. The cost is 460,000 L without engine.
The following year’s PL-3C also got magazine coverage, this time in Wing.
The Aerauto PL3 C is a small-powered tourism aircraft, single engine, high wing with propeller and tricycle undercarriage. It is a two-seater side by side, with the possibility of a third place. The fuselage beam, in high strength steel sheet with a circular section, formed by two half-shells welded is of simple and easy construction, it represents the longitudinal frame of the aircraft and comes to it welded directly, support for controls, undercarriage, ribs for the support of the fairing, engine frame that also makes to the connection to the wing.
The power train consists of a Walter Micron III engine from 80hp air-cooled, operating a two-bladed propeller with variable pitch. The motor is installed behind the side member of the central trunk, raised from the tail beam in order to allow the propeller rotation. It is supported by the same framework in pipes of welded steel that supports the wing. The tail is built with two side members covered in durall sheet and canvas. The rudders are statically balanced. The undercarriage is tricycle with independent rear wheels and wheel front adjustable.
The aircraft is equipped with the regulatory instrumentation for in-flight and the landing light, installed at the bow of the aircraft, taillights and signalling etc are powered by a 12V battery.
The PL-4 was publicly known as the Aerauto AER-1. L’Ala had a more consumer-oriented article in its July 15, 1948 issue.
PL-5C Aerauto
By 1949, Pellarini thought that his new model, the PL-5C, was ready for the public. Piloted by Leonardo Bonzi and Maner Lualdi, the Aerauto drove and flew across Italy from late 1949 to early 1950, 1800 km in the air and 2200 km on the ground, stopping at Turin, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Bari, Ancona, Rimini, Venice, Treviso, Vicenza and Milan. The Aerauto would fly to a location outside of a city, fold up its wings, and drive into the city proper, exactly as a commercial flying car was supposed to work. At the end, Pellarini grandly presented the Aerauto to the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Schuster.
Naturally, this great stunt garnered even more publicity, with Tempo magazine displaying a picture of the Aerauto, Pellarini, Bonzi, and Lualdi on a public street, taking up no more room than the cars behind them.
A British Pathé newsreel documented the Aerauto on the ground and in the air.
Pellarini immediately filed a U.S. patent application for a “Folding Wing for Roadable Aircraft,” which was granted after much delay in 1954.
Flying cars are hard to sell at the best of times, and with Italy’s economy in 1950 Pellarini got no orders at all. He gave up and emigrated to Australia. The Australian press showered him with articles as soon as he arrived.
PL 2C Wingspan: 9,80m Wing area: 12sq.m Length: 5,70m Height: 1,60m Empty weight: 340kg Payload: 210 kg Total weight: 550kg Wing load: 45.8kg / sq m Maximum speed: 190 kph (at 2000m) Cruise: 160kmh Stall: 70kmh Road speed: 60kmh Ceiling: 4000m Range cruise: 600km Max range: 750km Take-off dist: 120m Landing dist: 60m Fuel consumption: 15 lt/ hr
PL-5C Engine: 85 hp Continental C85 Max speed: 112 mph Cruise: 100 mph ROC: 535 fpm Service ceiling: 13.120 ft Range: 500 mi Empty weight: 1012 lb Loaded weight: 1540 lb Wingspan: 33 ft 5.5 in Length: 20 ft 4 in Height: 5 ft 9 in
All Aero 