Flettner airplane
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A flettner or rotor airplane is a conventional airplane without wings. Instead, a rotor airplane flies through the use of the Magnus effect, hereby having similarities to the rotating cylinders use by Flettner ship. Airplanes that use this effect/technique have first been build by Anton Flettner.
Flettner's rotor ship, the Flettner, now renamed the "Baden-Baden," came after a successful crossing of the Atlantic on 9 May 1926 in New York, where it attracted considerable attention. The development of the rotor aircraft was by the Flettner presented rotor ship inspired. The image shows the prototype of the rotor aircraft in an American shipyard at Hudson. At that time, corresponding developments were made in Germany already.
The development of this unusual aircraft based on investigations by Ludwig Prandtl at Aerodynamic Research Institute (AVA) in Goettingen. Prandtl had rotating cylinders measured in the wind tunnel - and it was amazing to see the lift values encountered. A rotating cylinder gave up to a tenfold higher boost than a plane wing.
[edit] See also
- Flettner double-rotor helicopter
- Flettner-flap
