Poll: Awesome Or Ugly? The Late 1950's Fairey Rotodyne
Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at 10:35PM 
The higly unconventional late 1950's Fairey Rotodyne - vote now: Awesome or Ugly?
The first ever Awesome or Ugly poll with the 1931 Vickers Type 161 was a rather great success, both for the poll in general and for the Type 161... with about 200 votes, that really interesting 1931 pusher biplane snagged an 'awesome' score of almost 87%. Quite an impressive performance for such an unusual looking flying machine! However, I did have a few voters suggest a third option of both 'awesome and ugly', so you'll note that this new poll centered on the late 1950's Fairey Rotodyne gyroplane includes all three options for you. (poll below video)
Like the first poll, this one is easy for me - the Fairey Rotodyne is pure AWESOME! The tip-jet powered rotor meant that this big boy could make vertical takeoffs without the need for a tailrotor and then that rotor autorotated in cruise flight, using the twin 2,800 shp turboprops and the small wing to push forward cruising to speed to about 175 mph. With a cabin capacity of 40 passengers, the Rotodyne was big enough to offer some serious practicality potential. However, those tip-jets were extreme loud during the few minutes they were used during takeoff and landing which seems to have led the program to cancellation even tho the aircraft performed amazingly well. Watch the video below, and then cast your vote in the second Awesome or Ugly Poll!
Reader Comments (6)
My caption contest entry:
Spoken in the same meter as the sterotypical "superman":
"It's a helicopter! It's airliner! It's a crane! It's rotordyne!" (you'd need to see the video to understand that, by the way).
BEA came VERY CLOSE to ordering some...one complaint from bystanders was that the tip rotor pulse jets were insanely noisy...But, I'm the wrong guy to judge...airplanes make MUSIC, not NOISE!
I sure enjoyed the "subtitles"
Is the test pilot the International Man of Mystery? Awesome mustache.
"I don't always fly helicopters, but when I do, I prefer the Fairey Rotodyne"
The old becomes new. Much like Eurocopters new X3.
I flew with Rotodyne as a Flight Test Engineer, it was noisy but we had made inroads to that, even if we did not satisfy the "I can hear it so Ban it" fraternity.
It is difficult for me to comment on the aesthetics of the thing, suffice to say we achieved a success that has only now been surmounted with the X-3 (I salute you gentlemen)
50 years ago we did what Engineers do best: showed the way and solved what problems we could with the tools we had.
Our success was squandered by lesser men.
I am proud of what we achieved, and remember;"Fortune favours the brave"!