Aerospace General Co. Mini Copter

[Mark Nankivil]

Good Day All -

A recent donation to the Museum included the accompanying photos of the Aerospace General Mini-Copter. Apparently part of the effort to find a way of bringing back downed pilots, the U.S. Navy had three of these built in the mid '70s which were then transferred to the U.S. Army in 1978.

Initially powered by rockets located at the tip of the rotor blades, at some point a McCulloch engine was added to extend the range of the copter in autogiro model. From "Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation" via Aviastar:

The "Mini-Copter" was intended originally for air- dropping to a pilot who had been forced down behind enemy lines or in terrain unsuited to conventional rescue. It is currently being evaluated by the US Army in an Individual Tactical Air Vehicle (ITAV) role in three configurations:

Configuration 1 is the basic version with no landing gear and the fuel tanks and control/rotor unit strapped to the pilot;

Configuration 2 consists of a welded steel tube structure carrying the control/ rotor unit and fuel tanks, and providing a seat for the pilot;

Configuration 3 is generally similar to the latter but has the addition of a 67kW McCulloch flat-four engine. This model takes off as a helicopter using its two 19kg Aerospace General rocket motors (one on the tip of each main rotor blade) but at 48kph forward speed the tip units are turned off and the aircraft flies as an autogyro using the McCulloch engine.

Anyone know if one or all of these ended up at a Museum?

Enjoy the Day! Mark