Whirlygigamabob

Well, I've been at it again. I ran across this interesting little German piece of engineering some time ago and it, like the Pitcairn Autogiro, has been eating at me ever since. This is a Focke-Achgelis Fa 223, a somewhat awkward attempt at helicopterous flight -- as most of the attempts were back then. Still, the design intrigued me so much I felt I had to do it once I could figure out how to set off the rotors. Then came along my Lego Space Shuttle kit and there were several red truss pieces I thought might work for this. So, I spread out the boxes of pieces all over the floor this morning and had at it. Here's what I came up with:


Not too bad, really, but as you can see, I had to once again take some liberties with the design. (I also gave it a huge shove into the 21st Century by adding turbojet engines.) You can see the tail is way too short, but if I'd built it to scale, the thing would be too tail-heavy and would sit down on its butt. Even so, I still had to find a piece of lead and stick it in the nose to keep it sitting up properly. Oh, well . . . I also had a really close representation of the Focke-Achgelis' vertical stabilizer, but it, too, was too heavy to use. This stuff can be maddening, believe me.


And here's an overhead 3/4 view of this little creation, showing off the red truss assemblies used for the rotor supports. I admit, they're a little bulky and clumsy-looking, but until I can figure out how to use those gray cuffs and black rods at an angle, I guess this will have to do. Thank God I finally got this out of my system!