The Shaanxi Baojii Special Vehicles Lie Ying Falcon ("Semi-Open Cabin With Tandem Seats Falcon"), otherwise known as Hunting Eagle Strike Gyrocopter, is a Chinese

autogyro 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 ...

that was designed and produced by the Shaanxi Baojii Special Vehicles Manufacturing Company of

Baoji () is a prefecture-level city in western Shaanxi province, People's Republic of China. Since the early 1990s, Baoji has been the second largest city in Shaanxi. Geography The prefecture-level city of Baoji had a population of 3,321,853 accordin ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...

province. The aircraft was supplied complete and ready-to-fly.Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', page 199. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015. The manufacturer is a well-known builder of armoured vehicles for police and military use and the aircraft was reportedly flying in 2015, but the original website was taken down in late 2016. However, there is a new company website. The aircraft gained media attention when it appears as part of 2019 China National Day military parade. Nicknamed "air tricycle", the aircraft reportedly costs approximately 40,000 Chinese Yuan.

Design and development

The Falcon was designed for

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

and military use as a

surveillance aircraft A surveillance aircraft is an aircraft used for surveillance. They are operated by military forces and other government agencies in roles such as intelligence gathering, battlefield surveillance, airspace surveillance, reconnaissance, observa ...

. It features a single main rotor, a two-seats-in

tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

open cockpit with a windshield,

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...

and a

Rotax 914 The Rotax 914 is a turbo-charged, four-stroke, four-cylinder, horizontally opposed aircraft engine with air-cooled cylinders and water-cooled cylinder heads. It is designed and built by the Austrian company BRP-Powertrain, owned by Bombardier R ...

engine in

pusher configuration In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...

. The Rotax engine is an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n-made, four-cylinder, liquid- and air-cooled,

four stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directi ...

turbocharged In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pro ...

unit. The aircraft has a two-bladed rotor with a diameter of . It has a typical empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload for the crew and mission equipment is . The basic model of the aircraft is a two-seater. An upgraded three-seater version of the aircraft also exists. The three-seat variant feature a engine, a larger fuel tank made from different materials, to give greater range, and allow the transportation of more cargo, as well as for parachuting operations.

Specifications (Falcon)

References

{{reflist

Lie A lie is an assertion that is believed to be false, typically used with the purpose of deceiving or misleading someone. The practice of communicating lies is called lying. A person who communicates a lie may be termed a liar. Lies can be inter ...

2010s Chinese civil utility aircraft 2010s Chinese military utility aircraft Single-engined pusher autogyros

Design and development

Specifications (Falcon)

See also

References