Roton Rotary Rocket SSTO with Helicopter Landing
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ธ.ค. 2020
- Rotary Rocket Company was a rocketry company that developed the Roton concept in the late 1990s as a fully reusable single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) crewed spacecraft with a rotating annular aerospike engine to pump fuel and oxidizer to the rim by the rotation and a helicopter rotor on top used for landing.
The design was initially conceived by Bevin McKinney, who shared it with Gary Hudson. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Crazy concept. On the first and only prototype the cockpit was called “the batcave” because the pilot’s view was so restricted. Great animation!
Google soviet movie Kin-dza-dza!
1990s tech limitations we would not have today
yes
@@vovanikotin Yeey! Somebody else saw it!
Quite on par with airbag and "sky-crane" Mars landing systems, which both worked. This one would, too, if given more funding.
The fact that a prototype of this damn thing actually _flew_ is crazy and slightly terrifying.
@Colin Berg The crazy part was the SSTO. Autototation would be a safe way to descend but the craft would need a strong anti-torque system to counter the rotation of the disk when landing. Helicopters can very safely glide to a soft landing in that manner and autgyros fly using the principle, it's a very well known phenomenon. Now, if the rotor disk could be used to slow the craft down from supersonic speeds, that is the debatable part.
@@MarkiusFox no torque, the rotors were powered by tip jets.
@@jeffreychen1191 nice those are really fast
@@MarkiusFox I worked at RotRock in 1998-99, and no, the torque between the rotor and the vehicle was only that due to friction in the main bearing. The power to fly the prototype was supplied by peroxide monoprop thusters on the rotor tips, inherently non-torquing. The aerial test vehicle had three additional thrusters mounted on the back side from the cockpit, and pivoted with cables attached to normal rudder pedals, which provided enough torque to counter the bearing drag.
@@MarkiusFox I'm nnot sure an anti-torque would be necessary since it drove the blades with tip-jets.
Saw the full-scale prototype of this thing up close at the Mojave Airport in 2014. It's huge! Much bigger than its pictures would give you the impression of.
Oh my gosh, it is SO MUCH more ridiculous than the old concept art implied. THANK YOU for bringing it to life! 😂
Except this really existed in real life it never went to orbit but it got to prototype stage and flew as a helicopter a few times!! The pilots said they thought they were going to die because it was so unstable.
UNDERSTANDING AUTISM I thought that some hardware was built.
@@bill_ruppert A full prototype did hover tests, didn't get past that tho
It would actually work using tip jets
I gotta try making this in my simulator game.
@@thefirstsin Kerbal Space Program?
And that's why when I was a child and I told my parents about my aspirations to be an aeronautical engineer, the first thing they did was forbid me to see Inspector Gadget.
More seriously, for those who ask about it, the fuel tanks occupy practically the entire rest of the vehicle with the kerosene tank behind the cargo compartment and the LOX tank in front of it extending almost to the bow.
As always, many thanks to Hazegrayart for sharing his great work.
This thing was the most insane idea to ever get legitimate funding and time put into its development
Is it really so crazy tho ??&
crazy idea
Agree it’s not crazy. In fact it’s an excellent idea.
Almost as crazy as bringing back from space and vertically landing a 15 storey orbital class booster on a pitching and rolling barge in the ocean using little more than the rocket engines that launched it. Then there's the whole Starship bellyflop...
@@kirkc9643 Exactly, something can only be proved impractical if tried. Maybe this concept would work great.
I like the chase helicopter as a nod to the rotor system used on the ATV, reclaimed from a Sikorski S58. I saw all four flights, and it sounded a lot like Harley-Davidson from hell with the exhaust plumes from the tip thrusters going around at 4x the rotor speed.
(My dad was a prisoner in East Germany for six weeks after the S55 on which he was a passenger went off course and crashed on the wrong side of the border in 1958.)
Once again, a brilliant animation. Thank you for bringing this ridiculous concept to life.
I never got a sci-fi feeling from it, but this made be think of escape pods that land under a heli blades.
The real problem would be slowing down enough that the blades didn't rip off during re-entry. Maybe a parachute at first to slow descent and obtain correct orientation, then cut it loose and use blades the rest of the way down.
LOL, please, please, please, do one of those cutaway animations showing where the FUEL TANKS are on this thing. Based on the size of that cargo bay, I’m guessing the fuel is stored in higher dimension tanks that have only a small footprint in our regular three, LoL.
Yes, I also wonder where the fuel tanks are. And it might even be able to land on autorotation without a helicopter-propulsion, but it would not hover long with autorotation and it would need longer rotor blades for that. Maybe that's why they added a sort of rotor-propulsion for a higher rotor speed before touchdown... (longer rotor blades might be difficult at high speeds between reentry and landing, but they were tilted at an angle far up...).
The fuel tank was below the cargo bay, LOX above, for cg reasons similar to Starship's header tanks. One way I suggested in 1999 doing the main pitch & yaw control was to segment the fuel tank and allow offcenter lateral cg to induce a torque to precess the main engine wheel to turn the entire vehicle. As the custodian of the wheel dynamics spreadsheet I was the first to realize that we had God's own momentum wheel there. Nutation damping would have been handled by the RCS.
@@r0cketplumber I followed this intently on the web in the late nineties. There definitely should be a repository of the entire story somewhere. I read somewhere that the test pilots were less than thrilled with the test articles handling. Do you feel that was true? I think this recovery system may still get its day in the future.
@@FeralRabbit The flight crew were Marti Sarigul-Klijn and Brian Binnie. MSK went on to Airlaunch and t/Space, while Brian flew Spaceship One and Two, then we worked together again on the Lynx vehicle at XCOR (which unfortunately was not completed). They rated the ATV as a ten on the Cooper-Harper scale, as bad as it gets. The extreme height gave terrible phase lag in pitch and roll inputs, while the yaw period was low but had poor control authority due to the low thust of the yaw motors. On the last flight when they pitched over and pulled collective to accelerate, the increased main bearing drag caused 90° yaw before the full deflection of the rudder pedal brought it back. I was terrified just watching.
@@r0cketplumber thanks for the sharing. Again all this stuff from the 90s was fascinating...Rotary...Black horse/colt.....Venturestar.....it all seemed so close to success.
I took a trip to go see this bad boy out near Edwards last year when I got flown out to JPL for a few days. Too amazing to see up close -- apparently according to the pilots who tested it, the difficulty landing was an 11/10, and I can see why. Amazing work as usual, boss!
Gorgeous video. Loved the 2001 vibe. I was hoping it would land next to one of those little monoliths that are popping up. Lol.
Funny thing the test article is still there and you can see it up close. Don't miss it whenever you're driving by Mojave, it's like 5minute detour, it's at the main entrance of the airport/spaceport. It's beside the memorial for those who died during Space Ship Two development.
I had an Estes model rocket that used a freewheeling rotor assembly instead of a parachute to slow its descent after apex, and it worked, sort of.
This was a great design. It was just difficult to fly manually so it lost funding. It would be easier to operate today with computer control.
Nice job! It looks like "Pepelaz" from soviet movie "Kin Dza Dza"!
Great animation thank you. Been wanting to see Roton fly since they first pushed the crazy idea. Who knew it would work so well!!
For those interested, Elizabeth Weil's book "They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus" covers the history of the Rotary Rocket company and is a great read on the ambition and absurdity of the Roton concept.
бл..ть, я чуть не обосрался: думал опять эцелоп летит....
Это в СССР придумали в 80х годах! Назывался Пепелац.
I remember this concept being drawn by Frank Hampton of Eagle comics back in the late 50’s...His popular comic strip beloved in Britain was called Dan Dare. In his version these were torpedo shaped escape pods that used their helicopter blades to safely land on an extraterrestrial planet. The story was called. The man from Nowhere.... he might’ve got the idea from World War II when the allies Parachute dropped The cylindrical cylinders for their airborne troops which were filled with weapons anyway it’s nice to see all the ideas come back to life
As much as SpaceX may try Starship can never match the absolute glory of the holy Roton.
Love the Hyperbole.
Wow, now it seems absurd to take the risk of landing Starship or any other craft under rocket power.
Absolutely wonderful, amazing. I can only say this is great, I literally don't see me complaining about anything here.
The Rocket Equation's arch nemesis
Amazing work btw
The rotors on top are only as crazy as a parachute. The really crazy thing about this is that it is a single stage to orbit.
There was a study of rotor landing the Apollo capsule too.
There were many, many RLV designs in the 1990's to launch the first try at megaconstellations (satphones, not broadband internet: Iridium, Teledesic, Globalstar).
- Roton (done here), Beal BA-2, Kistler K-1, Eclipse Astroliner, Black Horse / Pioneer Rocketplane, SA-1.
Amazing work on this, you're getting better and better.
Very cool animation and all around super well put together video!
I'm not sure what value assessment to give the Roton but the chase helo is a classic!
Gee, this thing makes ARCA look perfectly sane.
ARCASpace, for all of their problems, are still using fundamentally basic rocket technology (autogenously-pressurized pressure-fed steam rocket is aa weird and questionable one, but pressure-fed keroxide aerospike is something much more normal). I'd say Spinlaunch is more questinable due to crazy sideways _and_ direct G-forces they payload will experience. What are they planning to launch with it?
Hahahahaha, every single depiction of this is so physically impossible....I love it
@ Robert Williams what I was getting at was that as speed decreased apon acquisition of landing, the braking being applied by the collective will transfer torque to the aircraft, simple physics, how does the craft counter this force....
Great sound FX. Good work.
I 'member seeing this idea in a magazine somewhere as a kid.
Yes, there are such magazines in Germany, where engineers, scientists and visionists can print their dreams.
*Slow heavy kin-dza-dza soundtrack in the distance*
Woohoo!! Been waiting for your next video!
Needs two sets of counter-rotating blades otherwise the craft will start spinning.
Would some kind of internal flywheel be a possibility instead? Or would the weight be prohibitive?
@@graywayfarer That would probably use so much more fuel/electricity to do a rotor or flywheel than use a counterblade .
They use tip rockets
It needs nothing. Doesn't even need an animation
Coaxial. Like those beginner rc helicopters that were popular around 2010. The Eflite Blade CX series.
Great video ive been thinking a lot lately about affordable space flight and at last I think ive found the answer i plan to build a 1.18 scale model next year and see how that works
Lol, the attend helicopter ist an old H-34 with Piston engine. So vintage ...
But reliable~
30 years later:
Lol look at that gas powered chopper.
"Annoyingly sound from a mechanical perspective" was a clip I remember when first reading about this. I thought it was supposed to auto rotate down, not powered blade tips
I think it would have autorotated most of the way, but at very end needed more lift for soft touchdown.
Exactly. In the lower atmosphere and with lower speeds, an autorotation landing would be enough - but it had to be perfectly timed like the falcon 9 booster landings. There would not be much time to spare when it is close to the ground. And I guess that the propeller blades would need to be much longer, which might be difficult at the high speeds after reentry. Maybe that's why they tried to add additional rotation speed to it close to touchdown?
But I also wonder like the user "Helix", where the propulsion tanks are for the ascent into orbit ;-)
@@StephenMattison66 Thats why at the end you see those loghts at the tip of the blades, those are small rocket or jet engines speeding up the blades
The engine also relied on spinning cryo seals multiple feet in diameter. They never solved that problem for obvious reasons.
You use lift or you need tires to glide down like a gyro copter.
How i think it could work
1. Blades to launch
2. When the air is too weak for the blades, switch to the engines
3. Use engines to de orbit and slow down
4. When landing it can activate the blades again and land
Also, good animation
I think that's what they wanted to do at first but it was too complex
@@kroktal8896 makes sense
This is so awesome....!!!! I just can’t believe my eyes.... great job guys...
इससे भी और भी बेहतरीन तरीके हैं हमें अंतरिक्ष में जाने का माध्यम तरीका बदलना होगा
This is the type of thing that you’d see aliens come out of once it landed in the movies.
Thank you! Another great video of space vehicle concepts that would die on the vine. A suggestion, would you someday consider making a Rockwell International Starraker video in the future? I’ve always loved that design.
I think the operative word here is *majestic AF*
Agreed
It makes total sense. Why so many bad comments. A huge amount of lift and stability more dependable than parachutes.
Wow !!!! what a perfect match .. Great idea !!
Unreal! The music is epic
Wow this was fun to watch!!
Amazing animations! I LOVE your audio!
It’s going to spinning like crazy since it doesn’t have the tail rotor to cancel out.
Your right and you don't apparently see this in any images? Basic physics I'd thought, I suppose counter-rotating props would work, but the complexity? Or, use counter thrust rockets for the duration?
It used tiny engines at the tips of the rotors, so there's no torque to counteract except for a small amount of friction. They actually built and flew a prototype.
@@pseudotasuki Thank you for that info, that's certainly a good way of doing it.
If they add a fin to the bottom will it cancel out ?
Thank you, I had asked for this vehicle, though I forgot the name of it, but I did remember that it was to land as a helicopter. Thanks again.
Very impressive concept
Excellent work.
Ептить, это ж киндзадза
Пепелац без гравицапы не полетит.
Ку!
Создатель явно Кю!
Эх, дядя Вова
E
Wasnt it supposed to lift of with the rotors up to a certain height and than ignite the rocket motors ? And the solid fuel rockets were there to increase the rotation or something?
Not from what I recall. Was to only use them to speed the blades on final approach. The animation seems to make the scale smaller than what it was. I could be wrong, been awhile.
Yeah, I thought that the rotors lifted it up to a certain height but then kept on spinning, even after the engines ignited to power the turbo pumps but I could be wrong. That would have been awesome
Edit: I have found out that the original design was to do that but they changed it to what is shown in the video because it was more feasible.
I would much prefer Elon Musk to adopt this method of descent and landing Immediately
Так вот какой он, пепелац
THIS IS SUPER AWESOME 🚀✨🚁
Nice animation! I always thought it autorotated on the way down though.
Have family who worked on this. I'm sure they will get a kick out of this.
I get Scott Manley's video about this rocket in my recommendation below this video.😂
me too 😂
Wasn't the idea to take off with the helicopter blades and keep them spinning throughout the flight to power the turbopumps or something?
The initial plan was for the helicopter blades to be used during assent, but later revisions (including the Roton concept) only used the helicopter blades during reentry.
Good idea as long as there is an atmosphere.
Nice animation!
Great idea! You could simplify it by using a gyrodyne concept instead, with directional/stabilization thrusters around the bottom of the vehicle.
Sure wish this rocket had been fully developed!
Пепелац как он есть :)
без гравицапы
Ку! ¯ \ _ (ツ) _ / ¯
непонятно только как реализовать автомат перекоса на активных лопастях... да и в видео очень плохо видно как лопасти смогут двигаться не соосно с капсулой..
@Максим Кузнецов тут много «но», я собственно об этом и сказал... Автомат перекоса делают весьма массивным даже при условии лёгких полых лопастей, представьте как нужно будет усилить этот механизм когда на концах лопастей будет присутствовать момент от реактивной тяги... Для предотвращения вращения капсулы нужен не просто гироскоп, но и поверхности с изменяемым углом компенсирующие вращение вдоль оси, на подобие рулей дифферента у подлодок. Размер лопастей в ролике также вызывает сомнение... сделав их крупнее можно было бы на этой самой авторотации используя момент винта и до ноля тормозиться перед посадкой... В целом я согласен, использовать авторотацию для малых капсул, весьма элегантно, но по весу и дешевле парашут и пара тройка реактивных твёрдотельных замедлителей... давно известный факт.
are you Rússia? I am from Brazil
A must for development
Wow that's amazing
Если ты из России....всем КУ!
Ку, ку, ку! Всем ку! 😂😂 Пепеладз уже реальность! Приказ господина ПЖ: всем носить намордники и радоваться!
@Стен Ли Ты пацак! И ты тоже пацак! А я чатланин! )))
Ку! Ей, пацак, давай сюда гравицапу и в пепеладзу залезай! И цак напяль! Приказ господина ПЖ! А ну цак надел! Все пацаки должны это носить! А я чатланин! И ты обязан мне сделать ку! Не хочешь!? Ну ты и кю! Намордник надел и со мной в отделение!
Incredibly awesomeeee.
Welcome back Haze!
Hello
@@MS-qx9uw hello my man
Why are most people here so skeptical of this concept actually working? Helicopter pilots have been trained to land without power like this for decades.
Great idea
It sounded so batshit crazy when they first presented the idea, but still sounds like it could actually have worked. Unmanned. This thing has no valid abort options. Please do Kistler next. That one was actually quite good.
I found a interesting website with more information about the design and a interview with Gary Hudson about the project. The best quote from it is 'Bevin's original or "classic" Roton was a fun, cool idea. Using self-pumping and some aerodynamic lift augmentation up to about Mach 1.3, it could have performed the X-prize mission or put a couple of people and a ham sandwich into orbit.'
stargazer2006.online.fr/space/pages/roton.htm
The design that is shown in the video was after the backers demanded more payload and capabilities. And by then it was a runaway project that everyone knew was doomed to fail.
Nice PEPELATS rocket :) But it still miss GRAVITSAPA module :)
They had no idea about algorithms flying these things in the future. What things can we not even imagine wait for us . If we don’t get blown up
Cute design
Great idea💝
You let out that it reentered on its engine using evaporative cooling as a heat shield. The engine was a slight hemisphere that spin to pump propellants.
It's amazing how chi can look real.
This is an idea I had. It makes sense because it just uses gravity and blades to control your decent.
Almost believable, great effects
INCREDIBLE
If the propeller were to be powerful enough this would be great for landing on mars with it having such a thin atmosphere
Any chance we might also see Gary Hudson's 'Phoenix' VTOL SSTO?
Helicopter + rocket = you get this
That rotor would have to do so incredibly hard work, I kinda feel bad for it
Best. Rocket. Ever.
Fantastico. Semplicemente fantastico.
Great idea! Less fuel being burned to land!
Another cool project that wasn't completed
It's like a seed pod!
Excellent ！
Couple days ago in my mind appeared the same concept
Так это же "Кин дза дза-"
Just, why. Who thought, yes, this is a good idea.
They got rid of the turbo-pumps, they demonstrated that it would indeed fly with that rotor. And all the comments here just laugh at the concept. It was a hell of a good try!
Wow 🤩 hoy si me sorprendieron ese si es un invento novedoso solo puedo desir por fin isieron algo bueno