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:
“There is a mortifying experience in particular, which does not fail to wreak itself also in the general history; I mean “the foolish face of praise,” the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease, in answer to conversation which does not interest us. The muscles, not spontaneously moved but moved, by a low usurping wilfulness, grow tight about the outline of the face, with the most disagreeable sensation.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)