My page for messing about with all things Aircraft.

See also my aircraft notes archive.

Useful links

Wikiprojects

Templates, style guides, etc.

Questionable sources

Domain search	23/11/2022	Notes
theaerodrome.com	481
Aerial Visuals		Sub-sites include Airframe Dossier
airwar.ru	281
aviastar.org	0
greyfalcon.us	0	Black Sun Redux
globalsecurity.org	5,653	Many not under Aviation wikiproject
Kites, Birds and Stuff	0	P.D. Stemp
luft46.com	0
luftarchiv.de	0
militaryfactory.com + aircraft	121	121 not under Aviation wikiproject
nevingtonwarmuseum.com	0
planespotters.net	1,184
secretprojects.co.uk	0
ww2aircraft.net	0
Total	7,581	Plus Military Factory

Notes on editing

Suggested citation tag:

{{citation needed|date={{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}|reason=unreliable and/or copyvio source removed}}

Which gives:^{[citation needed]}

Suggested edit comments, as appropriate:

rm unreliable and/or copyvio source per [[AV/R]]

rm unreliable and/or copyvio source per [[AV/R]], tag

rm unreliable and/or copyvio source per [[AV/R]] and associated data

Notes on searching

Use the "Search for pages containing"' option, or the full-page web form.
For online sources, the domain name is the best identifier; for books, use the title.
Put the search term in quotes, otherwise the result will be drowned in hits on the constituent words.
This simple search misses in-page links which do not add the source identifier to the text of the citation, but it is a useful guide.

Engine infoboxes

Refactoring {{Infobox aircraft engine}} and other engine infoboxes.

Template:Aircraft specs

I am currently experimenting with table formatted output in my sandbox; engine parameters in User:Steelpillow/test2.

Template rendering

This is my current template code for, i.e. rendering of, the Supermarine Spitfire prototype K5054, with a few bits added to exercise all the code changes.

Specifications (fake pseudoheading)

^{[convert: needs a number]}

Roadmap

Comment-out visible examples of Template:Big so the pseudoheadings don't clash with real ones. - done
Remind myself how to generate table pipe code via a parser function. - done (see below)
Top-and-tail the whole thing as a singe table cell. - done (no functions, so uses ordinary wikitext)
Break into subheader and whole-list data cells. The headers are: General characteristics, Performance, Armament and Avionics. - done (uses magic word)
Clean out Big stuff. - done
Quick-and-dirty find/replace table code for bullets. - done (uses boilerplate html)
De-dupe row breaks after subheaders, courtesy of find/replace. - done
Debug Avionics. - done
Check sub-templates for bullet-list code. - done (only one is Template:Aircraft specs/eng)
Does Template:Aircraft specs/eng get invoked by anything else? - done (not that I can find)
Copy across the engine template, point my main code at my clone. - done
Fix bullet/s etc. in engine template. - done (uses boilerplate html, didn't try anything else)
Split into 2 columns (don't forget colspans and engine template). - done
Comment-out bold markup (don't forget engine template). - done
Delete wikitable class and check/finalise layout. - done
Invite comments. - done, see Template talk:Aircraft specs#Proposed format
Hardpoints nested lists (templated); see notes. - done
Add style="vertical-align:top" to each applicable <tr> element. - done
Restore bold in Col 1 and remove border. - done
User coded nested lists - need a bot to strip redundant bullet stars?
Move to official sandboxes (rename engine template links) and check against existing test cases.
Invite reviews.

Nested hardpoint parameters

Example: Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II#Specifications (A-10C)

These parameters are indented as a nested sub-list following the hardpoints parameter entry. They have bolded pseudonames as usual, but are also indented to the bullet-list second level:

hardpoint rockets
hardpoint missiles
hardpoint bombs
hardpoint other

It should be possible to trap the pseudo headings as table headings in the usual way, and indent via margin/padding.

It is also possible to just invoke hardpoints and enter free text, including sub-lists. See below.

User sub-list nesting

Some articles have nested lists added by the users as free text. For example:

Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II#Specifications (A-10C): Individual entries use up to triple bullet-stars (up to two levels being coded in the template/s). Avionics is bulleted list.
Lockheed P-38 Lightning#Specifications (P-38L): |bombs<br> has nested lists, needing at least 2 bullet stars. Note the line break.
BAC TSR-2#Specifications: Long and rambling sub-list item

They sometimes use a <br>, <br/> or <br /> to pseudo-nest. This could be trapped and used to create a second, single-cell row, leaving the upper right cell empty (rowspan would be a pig to implement and risks borking the vertical alignment). The content could be indented via cellpadding.

Some entries hardcode up to triple-bullet indents are in the user entries and cannot be ignored, i.e. the bulleted format is baked in to these entries. There are bound to be rogue articles with unpredictable variations. Can these do more than mess up the number of bullets?

Can't be clever and crop the daisy chains in the rendering, as that would perpetuate a future nightmare. But is it acceptable to bork the display with daisy-chains and force cleanup of the existing entries?

Template and related subpages

Note especially the subsidiary template for engine specs, Template:Aircraft specs/eng, as it has list bullet points in it.

Pages with the prefix 'Aircraft specs' in the 'Template' and 'Template talk' namespaces:

Template:

Aircraft specs

Template talk:

Aircraft specs

Escaping pipe characters in tables

Parser functions will mangle wikitable syntax and pipe characters (|), treating all the raw pipe characters as parameter dividers. There are several approaches to this, each behaving differently:

The {{!}} magic word. This 'hides' the pipe from the MediaWiki parser, ensuring that it is not considered until after all the templates and variables on a page have been expanded. It will then be interpreted as a table row or column separator.
The pipe character HTML entity | .
Raw HTML table syntax.

Description	You type	You get
Escaping pipe character as table row/column separator	`{{!}}`	\|
Escaping pipe character as a plain character	`\|`	\|

Producing table syntax using templates and/or parser functions

When producing table syntax using templates and/or parser functions, a pipe character in a parameter has to be coded {{!}}, which uses Template:!, to avoid being interpreted as parameter separator for the template or parser function.

In the case of a conditional table row we typically need code of the form "{{!}}-newline{{!}}.. newline" as then- or else-part of an if-construct. To avoid trimming, use a branching template (in this example Template:Ifnotempty) that preserves the newline:

Code

Result

{| class=wikitable
{{ifnotempty|x|{{!}}-
{{!}}a
}}{{ifnotempty||{{!}}-
{{!}}b
}}{{ifnotempty||{{!}}-
{{!}}c
}}{{ifnotempty||{{!}}-
{{!}}d
}}{{ifnotempty|x|{{!}}-
{{!}}e
}}
|}

a
e

In order to avoid generate extra newlines, the end of one template is put in the same line as the start of another in the above example. You can also comment  around the newlines to avoid the same problem, or use empty <nowiki /> tags. See Help:Newlines and spaces for more information.

Alternatively, XHTML table syntax can be used. It is not sensitive to line breaks and lets you avoid branching templates, {{=}} and extra {{!}} hacks.

---

Lists

To Do

WP:AVILIST:
- Expand scope to include commercial operators and other civil tables?
Categories:
- Usage of "type" in Category names: start from Category:Lists of aircraft.
- Consider a Category:Lists of aircraft by class [is there a better name?] to hold those broad classifications which are arguably neither roles nor design configurations. These might include the list of jet airliners, list of ultralight helicopters, Category:Lists of glider aircraft, Motor glider types and so on.

Conversion aids

Maintenance pages

When updating these, synchronise substantial changes to minimise rework of templated articles.

Standard lists

Current options

general:

Type	Country	Class	Role	Date	Status	No.	Notes

mil-current:

Type	Origin	Class	Role	Introduced	In service	Total	Notes

mil-historical:

Type	Origin	Class	Role	Introduced	Retired	Total	Notes

role:

Type	Country	Class	Date	Status	No.	Notes

nonstandard:

Roll your own headings...

maintenance (subject to change):

Type	Country	Class	Date	Status	Notes

Lists for conversion/consideration

Civil transports

List of jet airliners adds: No. of engines | Introduced - see no reason to keep Introduced. But is this list role or class based?
List of regional airliners adds seats
List of light transport aircraft adds Seats
Wide-body aircraft#Comparison

Private/light

List of human-powered aircraft - discuss.
Glider types - c.f. List of gliders.
Motor glider types
List of ultralight helicopters
List of current production certified light aircraft - lots of stats.
List of very light jets - lots of stats.

Misc lists

List of STOL aircraft adds STOL performance columns
Trimotor#List of trimotors
List of Zeppelins

Civil operators

The style guide for tables of aircraft in airline fleets is given at WP:ALFC:

See if any changes need making (also Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Airlines).
Add the format option to Template:Avilisthead.
Update WP:ALFC with links to avilist and template.

Issues

Headings: Aircraft | Total | Orders | Passengers | Routes | Notes - define standard.
Class & Style: apply the default wikitable sortable, per WP:AVILIST.
Total row: obsolete, as fleet size is given in the main infobox.

Starter examples:

Type | Total | Orders | [Options] | Passengers [x5] | Notes
Type | Total | Introduced | Status | Notes
Type | Origin | Class | Introduced | Status | Total | Notes

Status can be broken down into In service and Retired, as per mil lists.

Type | Total | Introduced | Status | Notes

Questions:

should orders and options be included? We don't currently do so for military lists.
should no. of passengers be included for operator lists of airliners? If so, is Class needed as well?

Type identification

For example:

Ordering by designation (e.g. F-1): Designation | Manufacturer
NATO reporting names: Type | NATO codename

Use the Avilisthead nonstandard option to begin with.

If a particular trend emerges, for example lots of similar lists with NATO codenames, then consider adding a new format option.

Airships

No List of airships yet.

"Airship" usage

In the pioneer years of aeronautics, terms such as "airship", "air-ship", "air ship" and "ship of the air" meant any kind of navigable or dirigible flying machine. ^{[airships 1]} ^{[airships 2]} ^{[airships 3]} ^{[airships 4]} ^{[airships 5]} Dirigible balloons could also be referred to as "flying machines."^{[airships 6]}

Terminology began to change from 1910, for example in 1909 Jane published the first edition of his All the World's Airships, which included separate sections for "dirigibles" and "aeroplanes". The second edition in 1910 kept to the same name while Berriman's book on Aviation, published in the same year, firmly declared an "airship" to be a dirigible balloon and not an aeroplane.^{[airships 7]} Jane's next edition adopted the modern name.

Since then the exact term "airship" has only been used for powered, dirigible balloons, with sub-types being classified as rigid, semi-rigid or non-rigid.^{[airships 8]}

Other variants of the old usage lingered on informally for the next thirty years. In 1919 Frederick Handley Page was reported as referring to heavier-than-air "ships of the air," with smaller passenger types as "Air yachts."^{[airships 9]} Even in the 1930s, the large intercontinental flying boats now competing with the giant dirigible airships were still sometimes referred to as "ships of the air" or "flying-ships"^{[airships 10]}^{[airships 11]}

General (flying machine)

Sacramento Evening Bee, November 17th 1896, "Air ship," synonymous with "flying machine" referring to a dirigible balloon.
US patent 467069 "Air-ship" referring to a compound aerostat/rotorcraft.
Ezekiel Airship (1902) wright-brothers.org altereddimensions.net "airship,"- referring to an HTA aeroplane.
The Bridgeport Herald, August 18, 1901 - "air ship" referring to Whitehead's aeroplane.
Cooley Airship of 1910, also called the Cooley monoplane.[3][4]
Frater, A.; The Balloon Factory, Picador (2009), Page 163. - Wright brothers' "airship."
Auckland Star, 24 February 1919 "Ships of the air," "Air yachts" - passenger landplanes large and small (Handley Page interview)

Flying ship, a large flying boat

The Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 11 April 1938 -"ship of the airs," "flying-ship," referring to a large flying-boat.
Smithsonian, America by air "Ships of the Air" referring to Pan Am's Boeing Clipper flying-boat fleet.

Misc / unclassified

Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 90, Number 99, 14 December 1895 - "Ships of the air," "airship" referring to aerostats which sail the wind (Edison making a fool of himself).
George Griffith, The angel of the Revolution, 1893 "air-ship," "vessel" referring to a VTOL compound rotorcraft (not clear from the extract if it might be an aerostat hybrid.)
Baldwin, Simeon E., "The Law of the Air-Ship" (1910)(pdf) Yale law school, "Air-ship" - synonymous with "airship" at a time when there were no aeroplanes.

"Blimp" usage

"Blimp" as an airship

The FlightGlobal archive http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/default.aspx

2000-2001: "airship" 91 hits, "blimp" 11 hits
2002-2004: "airship" 79 hits, "blimp" 3 hits

The Smithsonian web site http://www.si.edu/

"airship" 3430 hits
"blimp" 1560 hits
"blimp AND airship" 1420 hits
"blimp -airship" 224 hits
"airship -blimp" 2230 hits

"Blimp" vs "Zeppelin":[5]

The Goodyear Blimp web site http://www.goodyearblimp.com/cfmx/web/blimp

Lots of pages use both "blimp" and "airship" and sometimes "ship." Broadly, "Blimp" is used wherever the product name appears, while "airship" is the more common in descriptive content. For example, "Goodyear blimps are among the most recognized brand icons..." vs. "After 14 years of filling the skies, the “Spirit of Goodyear” airship retired...".
The explanation of Airship Types talks of "Non-rigid airships, like Goodyear's current blimp fleet..."
The History of the Goodyear Blimps also covers their rigid airships such as Akron and Macon, while concluding that "Today, Goodyear operates three airships in the United States -- the Spirit of America, based in the City of Carson, California; the Spirit of Goodyear, based in Akron, Ohio; and the Spirit of Innovation, based in Pompano Beach, Florida.".

UK usage: In the UK it is customary to title non-rigid airships as "airship", for example "SS class airship". The term "blimp" is slang and is not used in titles by any UK-published reference I have ever seen. So WP:COMMONNAME requires that we use "airship" and not "blimp" in article titles here, too. For example Ege, "Balloons and Airships", Blandford (1973) titles them "airships". He has an interesting comment in the entry for the "The SS or 'Sea Scout' class airships of the Royal Navy", where he writes: "Colloquially they always were referred to as 'Blimps'. Over the years several explanations have been advanced about the origin of this word. the most common is that in the military vernacular the Type B was referred to as 'limp bag', which was simply abbreviated to 'blimp'. An alternative explanation is that on 5 December 1915 A. D. Cunningham, R.N., who designed the SSZ type, flipped the envelope of a non-rigid airship with his fingers during an inspection, which produced a sound that he pronounced as 'blimp'; and that the word then caught on as the nickname for all small non-rigid airships." He pretty much avoids the "B" word everywhere else, though uses it occasionally in quotes when discussing American ownership.

From the Blimp article

A 1943 etymology published in the New York Times supports the British origin during the First World War when the British were experimenting with lighter-than-air craft. The initial non-rigid aircraft was called the A-limp; and a second version called the B-limp was deemed more satisfactory.^{[airships 12]}

Yet a third derivation is given by Barnes & James in Shorts Aircraft since 1900:

In February 1915 the need for anti-submarine patrol airships became urgent, and the Submarine Scout type was quickly improvised by hanging an obsolete B.E.2c fuselage from a spare Willows envelope; this was done by the R.N.A.S. at Kingsnorth, and on seeing the result for the first time, Horace Short, already noted for his very apt and original vocabulary, named it "Blimp", adding, "What else would you call it?"^{[airships 13]}

Dr. A.D. Topping researched the origins of the word and concluded that the British had never had a "Type B, limp" designation, and that Cunningham's coinage appeared to be the correct explanation.^{[airships 14]}

The Oxford English Dictionary notes its use in print in 1916 "Visited the Blimps..this afternoon at Capel." and in 1918 (in the Illustrated London News) "an onomatopœic name invented by that genius for apposite nomenclature, the late Horace Shortt." The B-limp.^{[airships 15]}

"Blimp" as a tethered kite balloon

Surveillance balloon

JLENS:

"Military blimp escapes, causes power outages before landing in Pennsylvania". Stars and Stripes. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
"Military Blimp Gets Loose, Cuts Power Lines". AVweb. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
Jonah Bromwich; Runaway Military Surveillance Blimp Drifts From Maryland to Pennsylvania, New York Times, 28 October 2015.
S.A. Miller; Billion-dollar military surveillance blimp breaks loose across Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington Times, 28 October 2015.
Andrea Peterson, Craig Timberg and Christian Davenport; The military lost control of a giant, unmanned surveillance blimp, The Washington Post, 28 October 2015.

Skystar 300

Mexico Signs Multimillion-Dollar Deal with Israeli Company for Mini-UAV and Surveillance Blimp ] Defence-Aerospace.com
South Korea Buys Israeli Radar System, CBN News.

Drone Aviation "Blimp-in-a-box"

Tethered Blimps Could Be Legal Alternative to Drones, livescience.

Barrage balloon

blimp, Pronunciation: /blɪmp, noun, informal, 1 (also Colonel Blimp) British A pompous, reactionary type of person, 2 A small airship or barrage balloon, 2.1 North American A fat person,..." Oxford English Dictionary online.[6]
Paris, M.; From the Wright Brothers to Top Gun: Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema, Manchester University Press, 1995, Page 127: "A novel and highly visible form of defence was the barrage balloon, the 'blimp', flown over a potential target...."[7]
Follow that Blimp, WW2 People's War, BBC: "He was armed with a rifle and chasing an escaped barrage balloon which drifted overhead." [8]
Wragg, D.; Historical Dictionary of Aviation, History Press, 2008, Pages 25-27: "Airship ... During the Second World War, the main combatants used barrage balloons, or blimps, to protect vital targets ...".

Advertising balloon

Blimps & Spheres, Merlin inflatables.
Tethered Blimps, Airship Solutions.

Kite balloon

Currently Kite balloon redirects to Observation balloon

A Kite balloon is a tethered balloon which is aerodynamically shaped to be stable in windy conditions.^{[airships 16]} This stability allows it to be used in weather conditions which are too severe for a round balloon.^{[airships 17]}

Kite balloons have been used as observation balloons (aka surveillance balloons) and barrage balloons and more recently.

History

Early work on "elongated balloons", which later came to be called kite balloons, was carried out in both Germany and Britain from the beginning of the twentieth century. In Germany some success was achieved, although the complex shape of the device added significant weight. The British Army expert and pioneer Colonel James Templer was less successful.^{[airships 17]}

Early in World War I Germany deployed them in large numbers as observation balloons and they quickly proved their worth. In response, the French quickly developed their own designs and in turn deployed them extensively over both land and sea. The British responded more slowly.

Italy deployed kite balloons as barrage balloon in the defence of Venice from 1916 onwards. 1917 saw the launching of German air attacks against England. One of the British defensive measures taken was to raise a line of high-altitude barrage balloons which carried between them a cable from which many more cables hung vertically, creating an "apron" over which enemy aircraft had difficulty in flying. Like their similarly-shaped but powered non-rigid airship counterparts, kite balloons became commonly known as "blimps".

By the end of the war, the use of kite balloons for observation was reducing due to their vulnerability to attack, while they had been widely adopted for aerial barrages by all sides.

For an article on WWI usage, see Aeroplane Monthly, June 1976.
For some notes on WWII usage, see "Skywriters", Aeroplane Monthly, August 1976.

Barrage balloons of very similar design reappeared again during World War II and more sophisticated defences based on their use were devised.

In postwar times, kite balloons have continued to be used in a variety of civilian roles.

Most recently, in the 21st century they have seen a revival of interest as surveillance balloons.

Design principles

References

^ US patent 467069 "Air-ship" referring to a compound aerostat/rotorcraft.
^ Ezekiel Airship (1902) wright-brothers.org altereddimensions.net "airship,"- referring to an HTA aeroplane.
^ The Bridgeport Herald, August 18, 1901 - "air ship" referring to Whitehead's aeroplane.
^ Cooley Airship of 1910, also called the Cooley monoplane.[1][2] - a heavier-than-air monoplane.
^ George Griffith, The angel of the Revolution, 1893 - "air-ship," "vessel" referring to a VTOL compound rotorcraft (not clear from the reference if it might be an aerostat hybrid.)
^ Sacramento Evening Bee, November 17th 1896, "Air ship," synonymous with "flying machine" referring to a dirigible balloon.
^ Berriman, A.E.; Aviation, Methuen, 1910, Page 249.
^ Ege (1973)
^ Auckland Star, 24 February 1919 "Ships of the air," "Air yachts" - passenger landplanes large and small
^ The Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 11 April 1938 -"ship of the airs," "flying-ship," referring to a large flying-boat.
^ Smithsonian, America by air "Ships of the Air" referring to Pan Am's Boeing Clipper flying-boat fleet.
^ "Origin of 'Blimp' Explained," New York Times. January 3, 1943
^ Barnes & James, p.13
^ van Beverhoudt, A.; These Are the Voyages, Lulu 2013, Page 119
^ "blimp, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2014. Web. 15 April 2014.
^ Ege, L.; Balloons and Airships, Blandford, 1973. page 68.
^ ^a ^b Walker, P.; 'Early Aviation at Farnborough, Vol. I: Balloons, Kites and Airships, Macdonald 1971, Pages 47, 184.

Rotor wings

Thoughts

Rotary wing redirects to Rotorcraft. Should Rotor wing be moved (over redirect) to Rotor airplane, with the (conventional and) stopped-rotor section moved to say Stopped rotor (over redirect) or Rotorcraft?

Rotor aeroplane

An aircraft which obtains its primary lift from horizontal-axis rotors (TENTATIVE F&S the Magnus effect, D h-a allsorts, common usage as a multicopter drone).

"Rotor airplanes An aircraft, which uses the Magnus effect by a rotating cylinder defines a new category besides fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft." - Seifert.

Rotor airplane redirects to main article.
Rotor aeroplane needs creating in parallel.

Horizontal-axis rotor

Find a cite for Davey's "Rotor aeroplanes"?

See also Talk:Rotor wing, which knocks on to Convertiplane and Powered lift for starters.

Stopped rotor

Sources

sources cited in the main article

"Hughes Rotor Wing Brochure". The Unwanted Blog (retrieved 15 May 2014)
McKenna, James T. "One Step Beyond", Rotor & Wing, February, 2007, page 54
"Stop-Rotor Rotary Wing Aircraft". Technology Transfer Office, US Naval Research Laboratory. (retrieved 16 May 2014)
"Stoprotor, Hybrid Rotorwing VTOL". sUAS News
"Hybrid RotorWing design transitions from fixed to rotary wing mid-flight" gizmag.com
"Hybrid RotorWing Conducts In-flight Fixed/Rotary Transition". Rotor & Wing, 30 August 2013.
cite web|url=[9]|title=Top Tech – The Flying Transformer|publisher=
"StopRotor completes successful first transition flight", Australian Aviation, 28 August 2013. Accessed: 7 May 2014.
Citation|last=NASAPAV|title=NASA Tanzenflugel VTOL UAV Concept|date=2009-12-21|url=[10]|accessdate=2017-01-08

additional sources

Stopped-Rotor Aircraft, globalsecurity.org
X-Wing, globalsecurity.org
XV-2 / S-57, globalsecurity.org: described as a "convertiplane".
Popular Mechanics, Aug 1962, pp67-69 [11] Girard "Heliplane" delta rotor, inc. Lockheed/Ryan VTOL F-104 Starfighter proposal.
McD-D paper including a triangular rotor disc: [12]
Davis, O.E.; Rotorcraft – Back to the Future, Boeing, 2012. (Boeing/DARPA StopRotor project)
Vargas-Clara multi-mode/multi-rotor/wing study.[13]
Paul Lewis; "Stop and start", FlightGlobal, May 2002.[14]: summary of early US research on rotor/wing variants, inc useful terminology.

Disc-rotors (stopped?)

Ellehammer helicopter
Caldwell ‘Disc-Rotor Plane’ of 1934 (ref Davis)
Boeing/DARPA DiscRotor (ref Davis)

Articles

Horizontal-axis

Rotor/Wing	Aircraft
Cross-flow fan	FanWing
Cycloidal rotor - redirect to Cyclorotor Cyclorotor	Cyclogyro
Flettner rotor	Flettner airplane Flettner aeroplane
Horizontal-axis rotor	Rotor aeroplane Rotor airplane - redirect to Rotor wing
Magnus rotor	(Rotor aeroplane/airplane here?)
Radial-lift propeller
Radial-lift rotor
Rotor wing - main article	(Not Rotorcraft?)
Self-propelling wing
Thom rotor
Wing rotor

Vertical-axis

Canard Rotor/Wing - redirect to Rotorcraft#Stopped rotor
Hybrid RotorWing - redirect to Rotorcraft#Stopped rotor
Stopped rotor - redirect to Rotorcraft#Stopped rotor

Sources

Misc

ICAO Definitions from the Chicago Convention defines "rotorcraft" broadly enough to include most of these types: "A power-driven heavier-than-air aircraft supported in flight by the reactions of the air on one or more rotors."
FAA CFR Part 1 [15] does likewise: "Rotorcraft means a heavier-than-air aircraft that depends principally for its support in flight on the lift generated by one or more rotors."
FAI ditto: an "aerodyne that derives the whole or a substantial part of its lift from a rotary wing system.” (see this RAeS discussion document)
"helicoplane" search on Wikipedia shows much arbitrary usage.
Rotor plane kite - "Rotor plane" as a spinning airfoil.
US patent 3410506 - "Rotor airplane" as a variable-geometry compound helicopter.
US Patent 3231220 longitudinal-axis "magnus/wing" type rotor as "rotor-wing".
[16] longitudinal-axis Magnus rotor as "Rotowing"
"Rotor plane" popularly used indiscriminately for any compound helicopter, autogyro, or ducted rotorcraft.
US patent including a self-propelling wing or radial-lift rotor: [17] - useful list of previous patents.

Davey

Need to verify the rotors under discussion before interpreting the use of "rotor aeroplane". (see paper notes)

Savonius

Savonius, Sigurd J.; The Wing-Rotor in theory and Practice, Savonius, Finland, 1925.[18]

Foshag & Boehler

Foshag, W.F. and Boehler, G.D.; Review and Preliminary Evaluation of Lifting Horizontal-Axis Rotating-Wing Aeronautical Systems (HARWAS), Aerophysics Co., 1969. [19]

Horizontal-Axis Lifting Devices
- Magnus Effect and Related Systems
  - Wing Rotor (Rotating Airfoil) Decelerators
  - Rotating Airfoil Convertible to Fixed Wing (RACW)
  - Rotating High-Lift Devices on Wings
    - Rotating Cylinder Leading-Edge Slat (RCLE)
    - Rotating Cylinder in Wing (RCIW)
    - Rotating Cylinder at the Trailing Edge (RCTE)
    - Rotating Cylinder in Flap (RCIF)
    - Rotating Airfoil in Wing (RAW)
    - Rotating Airfoil Slat (RAS)
    - Rotating Airfoil Flap (RAF)
    - Rotating Airfoil in Flap Leading Edge (RAIF)
    - Rotating Flap Systems in Ground Effect.
    - Rotating Flaps for Lateral Control
  - Orbiting Flap and Undulating Propeller
  - Cross-Flow or Transverse-Flow Fan and Flap
- Cyclogiro Systems
  - Full-Feathering Universal Pitch Systems
  - Helicopter With Auxiliary Cycloidal Rotor Propulsion and Control
- Horizontal-Axis Propellers With Cyclic Pitch: The Richard Helicoplane*
Near-Horizontal Axis "Radial-Lift" Concepts
- Radial-Lift Propeller or Self-Propelling Wing*
- The Helicoplane With Inclined Propeller Axis

*(p.177) "...the propeller without cyclic pitch but with its axis at an incidence to the free stream. This configuration, which Richard claims to be a special and important case of the helicoplane...". (p.182) "As will be seen in section II, cyclic-pitch propellers and "thrust wing" or "radial-lift" propellers are operating on the same principle." The helicoplane, radial-lift propeller and self-propelling "thrust wing" are based on a common principle. That is, the cyclic pitch of the helicoplane is equivalent to the tilting of the other two. Both require cyclic reversal of circulation flow around the airfoil.

Cycligiro produces both thrust and lift.

Zipfel

Zipfel, Peter H.; "On Flight Dynamics of Magnus Rotors", Department of the Army, USA, 1970.

Lots of non-cylindrical rotors, no simple airfoil types.

Seifert

Seifert, Jost; "A Review of the Magnus Effect in Aeronautics", Progress in Aerospace Sciences Vol. 55, Elsevier, 2012, pages 17–45.

§1 (p.18) "A rotor airplane is defined as an airplane which uses the Magnus effect for lift generation."

§1.2 and Fig.6 (p.21) "This airplane model provides a molded Magnus rotor instead of a fixed wing." [spiral scooped cylinder].

§2.1.4 (p.24): "A circular cylinder is not capable of autorotation. This is a disadvantage as in the case of a motor failure the lift drops with the rotary speed of the cylinder. But there are other kinds of Magnus rotors which are capable of autorotation."

ibid (p.25): "The Savonius rotor appears to have the highest rate of autorotation among the Magnus rotors investigated by Iversen. Miller performed wind tunnel experiments for an irregular shaped cylindrical Magnus rotor, see Fig. 15. [Caption]: "Four-vaned cylindrical Magnus rotor"

§2.1.9 (p.27) "The first prominent Magnus effect application, the Flettner rotor, was mounted with endplates. The idea of applying end-plates to the rotors was suggested by Prandtl in 1924."

2.1.10 (p.29) "Rotors with spanwise disks (Thom-rotor)"are a good choice if the rotor-length is limited by the rotor airplane requirements. However, more power is required to drive the Thom-rotor. In most cases, the Flettner-rotor is the best trade-off..."

§3.2.1 (p. 32): "Rotor airplanes An aircraft, which uses the Magnus effect by a rotating cylinder defines a new category besides fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft."

§3.2.2 "This [spinning-aerofoil] autogyro does not use the Magnus effect, as the rotor airplanes above, by affecting the boundary layer through a spinning cylinder," - i.e. is a spinning aerofoil rotor not a Magnus rotor? But c.f. 2.1.4 above.

"Cycloidal propeller" (presumably also a cycloidal wing, c.f. the cyclogyro) is different class again. Hybrid rotor has both a cylinder and a cycloidal propeller/wing.

Dunne aircraft

ToDo

Split off Dunne D.4 from D.1:
Need specs for each: Walker?
D.3 create new article.

Dunne types

Mortimer and Vaughan Safety

The Mortimer and Vaughan Safety aeroplane was an attempt to create an aeroplane which would be safe to fly. Constructed of wood, metal and fabric, its main wing comprised a hollow circular biplane in which the fore and aft sections were hinged together at the tips and the fore section was hollowed out at the back to give the appearance of a tandem biplane with joined wing tips. Seating was accommodated in the rectangular-section fuselage, below which was attached a four-wheeled undercarriage. Propulsion was to be via three propellers, two located in between the wings and one low down at the nose.

Following construction of a model in 1909, a full-size example was built.^{[mv 1]} It was completed in 1910 but it crashed and caught fire on its first outing, and was destroyed. A second, modified example in 1911 also failed to fly. A publicity photograph of it apparently in flight in fact depicts it hung on wires to give the impression of flight.^{[mv 2]}^{[mv 3]}^{[mv 4]}

References

^ Flight, 4 December 1909, p.784.
^ Angelucci, E. and Matricardi, P.; World Aircraft: Origins–World War 1, Sampson Low, 1977, Page 72.
^ Jerram, Michael F.; Incredible Flying Machines, Marshall Cavendish, 1980. p.68.
^ Jane, F.T.; Jane's All the World's Aircraft, 1913, Page 6b. Reproduces the publicity image.