__NOTOC__ The Dornier Do 132 was a

utility As a topic of economics, utility is used to model worth or value. Its usage has evolved significantly over time. The term was introduced initially as a measure of pleasure or happiness as part of the theory of utilitarianism by moral philosopher ...

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

under development in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in the late 1960s. While the design was a conventional pod-and-boom layout, the propulsion system was unusual in that it used a turbine engine, not to drive the rotor directly, but to provide a source of hot gas that was fed through the rotor shaft, along the blades, and out through

tip jet A tip jet is a jet nozzle at the tip of some helicopter rotor blades, used to spin the rotor, much like a Catherine wheel firework. Tip jets replace the normal shaft drive and have the advantage of placing no torque on the airframe, thus not r ...

s. The intention was to eliminate the weight and mechanical complexity of a gearbox and an anti-torque system for the tail. This engine system underwent extensive static tests while a full-size mockup was built to prove the aerodynamics in a wind tunnel. Ultimately, however, the programme was cancelled in 1969 before a

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

was actually constructed.

Specifications (as designed)

References

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EADS website
1960s German civil utility aircraft Do 132 1960s German helicopters Single-turbine helicopters {{Aero-1960s-stub