The Showers Skytwister Choppy 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 produced by Showers-Aero of

Milton, Pennsylvania Milton is a borough in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States, on the West Branch Susquehanna River, north of Harrisburg, located in Central Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River Valley. It is approximately 10 miles upriver from the mouth ...

, introduced in 1992. Now out of production, when it was available the aircraft was supplied in the form of

CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve co ...

plans for amateur construction.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 331. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998.

Design and development

The Skytwister is a modernized and updated version of the

Adams-Wilson Hobbycopter __NOTOC__ The Adams-Wilson Hobbycopter (later named the Adams-Wilson Choppy) is a small, single-seat, open-framework helicopter designed for homebuilding, to be powered by a motorcycle engine. Design and development The Adams-Wilson company was ...

, also called the "Choppy", as redesigned by Ben Showers. The Skytwister was designed to comply with the US ''Experimental - Amateur-built'' aircraft rules. It features a single main rotor, a two-bladed tail rotor, a single-seat open cockpit with a windshield and 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 ...

. The standard engine used is a twin cylinder, liquid-cooled,

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

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 Terms, ...

Rotax 582 The Rotax 582 is a two-stroke, two-cylinder, rotary intake valve, oil-in-fuel or oil injection pump, liquid-cooled, gear reduction-drive aircraft engine manufactured by BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co. KG. It is for use in non-certified aircraft operating ...

powerplant with a 2.58:1 reduction drive, which replaces the original Choppy's motorcycle 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 aircraf ...

is made from bolted-together

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

tubing. Its two-bladed Fleck 2706 aluminium alloy main rotor is made as an extrusion and has a diameter. The tail rotor has a diameter of . The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload for pilot and baggage is . The designer estimated the construction time from the supplied plans as 300 hours.

Operational history

By 1998, the company reported that 200 sets of plans had been sold and 12 aircraft were completed and flying. By April 2015, no examples were 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 ...

, although a total of one had been registered at one time.

Specifications (Skytwister)

References

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External links

Photo of the Skytwister
Skytwister 1990s United States sport aircraft 1990s United States helicopters Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined piston helicopters

Design and development

Operational history

Specifications (Skytwister)

See also

References

External links