The SNCASO SO.1310 Farfadet was an experimental
French convertiplane
A convertiplane is defined by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI or World Air Sports Federation) as an aircraft which uses rotor power for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and converts to fixed-wing lift in normal flight. In the ...
of the 1950s.
Design and development
The SO.1310 was a
compound gyroplane
A gyrodyne is a type of VTOL aircraft with a helicopter rotor-like system that is driven by its engine for takeoff and landing only, and includes one or more conventional propeller or jet engines to provide forward thrust during cruising flight ...
featuring a
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 re ...
driven, three-bladed rotor, a fixed wing and a
turboprop
A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller.
A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. Fuel ...
engine driving a nose-mounted propeller. First flown on 8 May 1953 the aircraft achieved transition to forward flight on 1 July of that year.
[Taylor 1976, p.229.]
Specifications (SO.1310)
See also
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
* Taylor, John W.R. ''Jane's Pocket Book of Research and Experimental Aircraft'', London, Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Ltd, 1976. .
*
External links
''Flight'', 12 March 1954"French Air Oddities"
''Popular Mechanics'', December 1953, p. 115.
{{SNCASO aircraft
1950s French experimental aircraft
Gyrodynes
Farfadet
Aircraft first flown in 1953