Heliopters autogiros for the ww2: underused, or not worth it?

[MikeMeech]

INHO armies respected those small planes and their pilots and at least some SS PzDivs hated them in Normandy in 44 and ordered that they were number one targets for the divisional AA units because they were most dangereous Allied planes. Also at Anzio German ground units demanded more LW actions against Allied AOPs and LW tried to comply.

Juha

Hi

It has to be said that both the LW and German AA units were not that successful at dealing with spotter aircraft. The Analysis of Casualties on p.161 of 'Unarmed into Battle - The Story of the Air Observation Post' (British spotting aircraft) has 37 Aircraft Operational Casualties and 24 Non-Operational Casualties. Of the Operational Casualties 1 was in North Africa, 18 in Italy, 18 in N.W. Europe and 0 in S.E. Asia. Of these 3 were lost to Anti-Aircraft fire, 6 to Enemy Aircraft, 4 to small arms fire from the ground, 9 to own shells, 8 to flying accidents, 7 to Miscellaneous or unknown events.

Mike

 

[c1951]

Regie Brie designed the helicopter platform for the Daghestan, in fact he held the patent for it. There is a drawing of an autogiro platform on a Royal Navy vessel dated 1940, its in the Aeroplane magazine for that year. In the history of the U S Coastguard they say the British went 50/50 on helicopter development for the use of helicopters at sea. You can see them at Brooklyn Navy Yard (Floyd Bennet) airfield Sikorsky HNS-1 "Hoverfly" (1943). There they used a mix of Coastguard and Royal Navy Hoverflies. The Royal Navy did believe that the helicopter was the way forward on anti-submarine work. I was not able to prove that the Weir W6 was suitable for shipborne operations, but I do know James Weir took the design to the Autogiro Company of America in July 1940. I still cannot substantiate the reports of German helicopters being used under operational conditions at sea. Strangely the German helicopters were 100% better than the Hoverfly series, Sikorsky R-4B Hoverfly > National Museum of the United States Air Force™ > Display StackPath