The Aerospace General Mini-Copter was a miniature helicopter designed to be air-dropped to U.S. military pilots stranded behind enemy lines or in otherwise inaccessible areas.
At its most basic, the Mini-Copter was simply made up of fuel tanks and a rotor unit strapped to the pilot. A slightly more conventional configuration was also developed, with these units attached to a steel framework that also provided a seat for the pilot. In both these versions, power was provided by rocket motors on the rotor tips.
A third variation added a piston engine and pusher propeller to the design, allowing it to fly as an autogyro without the tip rockets once sufficient forward speed had been achieved.
Famous quotes containing the word general:
“The man who would change the name of Arkansas is the original, iron-jawed, brass-mouthed, copper-bellied corpse-maker from the wilds of the Ozarks! He is the man they call Sudden Death and General Desolation! Sired by a hurricane, dam’d by an earthquake, half-brother to the cholera, nearly related to the smallpox on his mother’s side!”
—Administration in the State of Arka, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)