The Redback Buzzard is an Australian

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 and produced by

Redback Aviation Redback Aviation is an Australian aircraft manufacturer based in Hoppers Crossing, Victoria. The company is engaged in the development of kit and plans-built helicopter designs for amateur construction.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ...

Hoppers Crossing, Victoria Hoppers Crossing is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham local government area. Hoppers Crossing recorded a population of 37,216 at the 2021 census ...

. The aircraft was intended to be supplied as a kit for amateur construction, but only one prototype was ever completed and development ended.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 193. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. ISSN 1368-485X

Design and development

The Buzzard was based on the second generation Star Aviation LoneStar helicopter to which Redback own the rights. The Buzzard was designed to be a minimalist helicopter, using a maximum of off-the-shelf parts and to comply with the homebuilt aircraft rules. It features a single main rotor, 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 a

Suzuki is a Japan, Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Minami-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan. Suzuki manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, All-terrain vehicle, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard motor, outboard marine engines, wheelchairs ...

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 ...

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 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 has ...

tubing, with the tailboom built from

carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

. Its diameter two-bladed rotor has a chord of , with anti-torque handled by a conventional two-bladed tail rotor. The main rotor transmission uses a combination of V-belts and toothed belts. Pitch link controls are mounted inside the hollow rotor mast tube. The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload is . The company indicates that only one prototype was built and that it was sold, ending development of the aircraft, in favour of a new design, the Redback Aviation Spider.

Specifications (version)

References

External links

* {{Redback aircraft 2000s Australian sport aircraft 2000s Australian helicopters Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined piston helicopters Redback Aviation aircraft