The Matra-Cantinieau MC-101 was an early 1950s

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

experimental two seat helicopter of conventional tail rotor configuration but with its engine mounted close to the main rotor, above the seating.

Design and development

The helicopters designed by Jean Cantinieau were distinguished by having an engine positioned in front and immediately below the main rotor drive shaft, above the cockpit. The first of the series was the Cantinieau C-100, which had an open tube frame structure with a braced single tube tail boom, four wheel undercarriage and a Minié engine. It first flew in September 1951. Cantinieau went to the Société Matra to build a two-seat development, the MC-101. This was also an open steel tube design, more complex particularly in the tail boom, though the undercarriage was reduced to simple skids apart. It had a Hirth HM-504 engine, enclosed in a long, smooth nosed but partially open sided

cowling A cowling is the removable covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, and on outboard boat motors. On airplanes, cowlings are used to reduce drag and to cool the engine. On boats, cowlings are a cove ...

, driving the oscillating rotor hub via a 41:6 reduction gearbox,

clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts). ...

and Paulstra universal joint. The rotor blades were machined from

duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The term is a combination of '' Dürener'' and ''aluminium''. Its use as a tra ...

. A three blade tail rotor was driven via another Paulstra joint and cardan shaft. The MC-101 carried two pilots side by side with dual control. There was no cabin but they were protected behind a large

perspex Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite ...

screen with rounded vertical edges. It flew for the first time on 11 November 1952. Only one was built. In 1953 Cantinieau was appointed as director of the Spanish company Aerotécnica's new helicopter division, which also acquired the rights to the MC-101 from Matra. The Hirth engine was replaced with a more powerful air-cooled flat four Lycoming O-320, in order to cope better with

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

's hot and high atmosphere, and the helicopter was renamed the Aerotécnica AC-11. Further development led to the

Aerotécnica AC-12 The Aerotécnica AC-12 ''Pepo'' is a Spanish two-seat light helicopter manufactured in 1956 by Aerotécnica __NOTOC__ Aerotécnica was a Spanish aircraft manufacturer established in Madrid in 1954 to develop Jean Cantinieau's helicopter designs ...

with an enclosed

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

and cabin.

Variants

;Matra-Cantinieau MC-101: Hirth HM-504 engine. ;Aerotécnica AC-11: MC-101 with Lycoming O-320 engine.

Specifications (MC-101)

References

{{Cantinieau aircraft 1950s French helicopters Single-engined piston helicopters