Back Rotorcraft "Grasshopper"
1962

Rotorcraft "Grasshopper"

Rotorcraft Ltd was established with backing from Mitchell Engineering in the early 1960s to produce a new two-seat design by J.S.Shapiro. The "Grasshopper" in its definitive form had a fuselage somewhat similar to an enclosed sports car with a small v-tail and a skid undercarriage. It was powered by a pair of 65hp Walter Mikron piston engines mounted in the nose. These drove a pair of two-blade coaxial rotors mounted on a pylon which emerged just ahead of the cockpit windshield. G-ARVN, the prototype, flew in March 1962, but was withdrawn from use the following spring when funding was withdrawn following the death of the owner of Mitchell Engineering, and the project was abandoned.

R.Simpson "Airlife's Helicopter and Rotorcraft", 1998

Comments
Ian Sanderson, e-mail, 28.02.2021reply

I have a few pictures of the helicopter flying and linkage from 1970 Redhill

Dr. T Opatowski, e-mail, 27.03.2008reply

The date on your quote in my name should have been 1957.

Dr. T. Opatowski, e-mail, 26.07.2007reply

I put a model of this aircraft into the wind tunnel of the College of Aeronautics (as it was then)in June 1977 while waiting for our final results and before the diploma presentations.

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