Michel Wibault's strange and wonderful VTOL and rotorcraft projects

[Jemiba]

Well, the post war Wibault designs ! A little bit off topic here, as not really an "early"
project, but as it was mentioned here, I won't start another thread:
(And in the meantime it's more than 50 years ago ...)

Michel Wibault, inventor of the "Flying saucer"!
Isn't it hard for the british, that one of their most succesful post war combat aircraft
was in fact designed by a french ???
Some years ago, I've tried to make a series of drawings of these vectored thrust designs,
most interesting for me were the pre-Harrier studies. As I had just principle drawings,
details, as undercarriage are just a form of reasonable guesses, in the case of the two
designs with a Bristol engine based on the later Hawker designs.
Anyone who has better material ?

 

[Jemiba]

.. and the last two ones, already quite close to what Hawker called "fast helicopter" :

 

[elmayerle]

I'd hardly say it was designed by the French; inspired by a French idea - most certainly, but so many of the developments and refinements that made it a functioning aircraft were based on Bristol and Hawker experience.

 

[raravia]

Ok, no problem Jemiba

I would ask you why they call this aircraft Gyroptere? that name it´s sounds better for an helicopter or maybe an autogyro.

I like very much the illustration, it reminds me the way Hergé draw the aircrafts. He was a very famous comic writer who created Tintin & Milu, a great series of comic books traslated to already a 100 languages.

Saludos

Raravia

 

[Jemiba]

I'm heavily interested in french aviation, but I really don't know, where they found
names as "Gyroptere", or in the case of the Labat designs "Aeroblic" ... ;D
The starting idea for the Wibault designs certainly was the "enclosed rotor",
simply spoken a packed up helicopter ! Perhaps this was the meaning of this name ?
Yes, "Tintin & Milu", or "Tim & Struppi" as they are called here ! I read those comics,
when I was a child and now I read them again, as my kids found them in the public
library and like them, too.
And because my illustration looks this way, I more or less quit making more, when I saw
the first 3-D drawings some years ago, made with CAD programs and concentrated again
on 3-views ... :

 

[Archibald]

As far as I know, Wibault idea was to use a turboprop with four "enclosed", tilted propellers. The Hawker company changed the turboprops/ propellers for a turbojet and four tilting exhausts... the Harrier was born...

 

[Jemiba]

The shown, "UFO like" designs are in fact what they are called, an enclosed rotor,
or, perhaps better described as single stage compressors, using a four bladed , tip
driven fan, the tip jets just protruding from the ring slot at the underside. Flightcontrol
should be achieved by pumping ballast (fuel or water) between various tanks at the
perimeter ! So Wibaults later idea of using four compressors instead of a single one,
seems more realistic.

 

[amsci99]

Although much has been written about the direct lift system of the Harrier, very little is devoted to its' originator and patent holder, Michel Wibault. Considering that the Pegasus was a magnet for IR heat seekers, I was wondering if 2 coupled turbofans driving 4 lift fans as proposed in the original Gyroptere would have been a better alternative. On another note, whilst much has been written about Dassault and other French aviation pioneers, there seem to be very little information about Wibault on the net.

 

[hesham]

amsci99,

Please see the magic from Jemiba about that subject;
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,395.0.html

 

[Jemiba]

What we had forgotten in this thread was at least one link to
some basic informations : http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/Landmarks/5616.pdf
For the designs with "enclosed rotors", I had a link, too, but it
doesn't work anymore, so here just the two drawings, obviously
from a patent.

 

[Stargazer]

The Wibault Gyroptère and Wibault/Lewis VTOL projects, both from 1956.


Source: Osprey Air Combat: British Aerospace Harrier and Sea Harrier by Roy Braybook, Osprey 1984

 

[amsci99]

Any idea if the magazine, "Le Trait d'Union' covered the Gyroptere or any other projects from this period by Michel Wibault?

 

[alertken]

184884042X Andrew Dow, Pegasus, the Heart of the Harrier has much on Wibault...inc. a hint as to why Winthrop Rockefeller financed him.

 

[Jemiba]

Another design by Michel Wibault for a VTOL aircraft, called "Aérobus".

(from Aviation Magazine September 1960)

 

[Stargazer]

Topics merged. Any more pictures of Wibault-related helicopters, flying saucers, VTOL fighters or flying platforms are much welcome here!

 

[Stargazer]

A painting of the Wibault-Lewis VTOL aircraft originally posted by Jemiba on June 21, 2006 in a topic that has been split:

 

[hesham]

And from the file; Pegasus Vectored-thrust Turbofan Engine

 

[ouroboros]

And from the file; Pegasus Vectored-thrust Turbofan Engine

That quad centrifugal blower design is wonderfully insane, but makes a sick sort of sense too.

 

[steelpillow]

I have always wondered how much the Hawker Sea Hawk influenced the design of the Harrier and Pegasus. The problem of long ducting in a long fuselage was solved at the front by de Havilland who, having split the intake either side of the cockpit, cut it short at the wing root. Only Hawker dared try the same trick with the hot exhaust. Somewhat to everybody's surprise it worked well and the Sea Hawk was born. The Harrier is little more than a Sea Hawk with a bypass turbofan and thrust vectoring.

Has any other craft besides these two ever flown with a bifurcated (split) jet exhaust? And did Wibault live to collect his royalties?

 

[Granit]

Has any other craft besides these two ever flown with a bifurcated (split) jet exhaust?

Yak-38

 

[cluttonfred]

That quad centrifugal blower design is wonderfully insane, but makes a sick sort of sense too.[/quote]

It does indeed, it's an elegantly simple solution since the blowers can be fixed in place and all you'd need is vectoring nozzles. Presumably you could get by with just three fans but the third would likely be an oddball fore or aft, the four fan solution should allow a degree of modularity. I've always wanted to build a homebuilt VTOL aircraft, hmmm.....

 

[hesham]

Another design by Michel Wibault for a VTOL aircraft, called "Aérobus".

(from Aviation Magazine September 1960)

From Ailes,a clearer view

 

[Wka23]

Anyone has a copy of the NATO brochure

 

[emile1211]

Who could reminds me of which project this American layout belong to? I think it is the same principle used as this thread.

 

[martinbayer]

The Aérobus reminds me a bit of one of Lippisch's Aerodyne designs.

 

[riggerrob]

The Wibault Gyroptère and Wibault/Lewis VTOL projects, both from 1956.


Source: Osprey Air Combat: British Aerospace Harrier and Sea Harrier by Roy Braybook, Osprey 1984

We can understand using two counter-rotating compressors to counter-act torque ... but why 4?

 

[dan_inbox]

Manoeuverability through differential settings.

 

[Roger le loup]

I'd hardly say it was designed by the French; inspired by a French idea - most certainly, but so many of the developments and refinements that made it a functioning aircraft were based on Bristol and Hawker experience.

It is funny why Brits do not like to give credit where credit is due. Yes, Michel Wibault a very clever and famous aircraft designer did design the original idea that was to become the Harrier jump jet. He was a consultant on the Harrier project and was involved in all its development stages until his death and by that time the Harrier was born. He was its designer, he is also known as the father of VTOL. The Harrier was based on a Frenchman's design, a man called Michel Wibault.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

I'd hardly say it was designed by the French; inspired by a French idea - most certainly, but so many of the developments and refinements that made it a functioning aircraft were based on Bristol and Hawker experience.

It is funny why Brits do not like to give credit where credit is due. Yes, Michel Wibault a very clever and famous aircraft designer did design the original idea that was to become the Harrier jump jet. He was a consultant on the Harrier project and was involved in all its development stages until his death and by that time the Harrier was born. He was its designer, he is also known as the father of VTOL. The Harrier was based on a Frenchman's design, a man called Michel Wibault.

Very much wrong.

Wibault invented the concept of vectoring nozzles, but his engine design was impractical, shaft-driven by the gas generator of the Bristol Orion turboprop.

Gordon Lewis at Bristol combined elements of the Orpheus (core), Olympus (fan) and elements of Wibault's vectoring nozzle idea and designed the B.S.53, forerunner of the Pegasus. Initially only the fan exhaust was vectored, not the core, to 2 nozzles at the front of the engine.

Ralph Hooper was bored with his work on the P.1121 one day and went to the Hawker Technical Library where he picked up the B.S.53 brochure and drew up a small STOL liason design around it.

Bristol refined the engine design with splitting the hot core exhaust to 2 more nozzles, such that all of the engine thrust can be vectored. Hawker engineers generally ascribe the genesis of this idea to themselves, based on experience with bifurcated exhausts on the Sea Hawk.

In a long process of refinement, the P.1127 and the Pegasus engine were built, eventually leading to the Harrier. Michel Wibault died in 1963, after the P.1127 had flown but well before the Kestrel, let alone the Harrier.

The designer of the P.1127 was Ralph Hooper. His colleague John Fozard took over leadership on the Harrier.

Michel Wibault was no more than a paid consultant to the engine company. Bristol employed Wibault as a consultant and credited him on the patent. This was recompense for using his basic idea.

His ideas were helpful, but Gordon Lewis deserves most of the credit for leading the Pegasus through to a workable engine. I suggest you read Andrew Dow's book on the Pegasus engine.