The Phoenix Skyblazer is an American

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 ...

that was designed by the Nolan brothers and produced by

Phoenix Rotorcraft Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

Fallston, Maryland Fallston is a census-designated place (CDP) in Harford County, Maryland, Harford County, Maryland, United States. The population was 8,958 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, up from 8,427 in 2000. Fallston is a semi-rural community c ...

and more recently

Louisburg, North Carolina Louisburg is a town in Franklin County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 3,064. It is the county seat of Franklin County. The town is located approximately 29 miles northeast of the state capital, Ral ...

. When it was available the aircraft was supplied as a complete ready-to-fly-aircraft.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 193. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485X While advertised for sale in 2011, by February 2013 the aircraft was no longer listed as being available on the manufacturer's website. By January 2015 the company was offering a new

gyroplane An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), also known as a ''gyroplane'', is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, by an engine-driven propeller. Whi ...

using the same name, spelled ''SkyBlazer'', as the previous helicopter design. The company website domain subsequently expired and the company is likely no longer in business.

Design and development

The Skyblazer features two coaxial, contra-rotating main rotors, a single-seat open cockpit without a windshield, skid-type

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...

and two twin-cylinder, air-cooled,

two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a Thermodynamic power cycle, power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being comple ...

dual-ignition Dual Ignition is a system for spark-ignition engines, whereby critical ignition components, such as spark plugs and magnetos, are duplicated. Dual ignition is most commonly employed on aero engines,Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...

Rotax 503 The Rotax 503 is a , inline 2-cylinder, two-stroke aircraft engine, built by BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co. KG of Austria for use in ultralight aircraft.Raisner, William: ''LEAF catlog'', pages 6-105. Leading Edge Airfoils, 1995. As of 2011 the Ro ...

engines for redundancy. The two engines were provided due to the aircraft lacking collective pitch control, thus precluding an

autorotation Autorotation is a state of flight in which the main rotor system of a helicopter or other rotary-wing aircraft turns by the action of air moving up through the rotor, as with an autogyro, rather than engine power driving the rotor. Bensen, Igor ...

in the event of a power loss. The aircraft can reportedly hover on one engine. The aircraft

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 ...

is made from welded steel tubing. Its dual two-bladed rotors have diameters of and incorporate dual flapping hinges. Directional control is achieved by tilting the rotor mast. The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload is .

Operational history

In October 2022 there was one example registered in the United States with the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

Specifications (Skyblazer)

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website archives
on

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

2000s United States sport aircraft 2000s United States helicopters Twin-engined piston helicopters Coaxial rotor helicopters

Skyblazer ''Skyblazer'' is a platform video game published by Sony Imagesoft, released in early 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It involves Sky, the Skyblazer hero (Garuda in the Japanese version) searching for Ashura, the Lord of War, w ...