MAC Forum

The Fairey Rotodyne is another favorite of mine...

Sometimes this aircraft is refrerred to as a gyrodyne or gyroplane. Clearly, it's a later cousin of the early autogiro.

A few different toy manufacturers produced examples of the Fairey Rotodyne. Without exception, they're all VERY collectable.

Here are some of favorites - a few of these have appeared in other threads, but I'd like to consolidate some of the photos here:

Tomiyama Vertical Liner for Sears - came in two versions, one with and one without retractable landing gear



Bandai Vertical Liner



KOT (Yoshiya Toy) Fairey Rotodyne

Y (Yonezawa) Sky Patrol Fairey Rotodyne



Siku Fairey Rotodyne



Arnold Fairey Rotodyne

Marx Gyroplane



Wyandotte Gryoplane

without looking at wiki, i seem to recall the big difference in a gyrodyne/rotodyne system is that the rotors turn via the tip produced heated gas or even having their own jets{ hiller hornet} on the tips, big advantage was no torque, hence no need for power stealing tail rotors

True - the original gyrodyne had rotors that were driven directly from the engine/transmission. The next version, the "Jet Gyrodyne" incorporated rotor tip jets into the design. It seems that some also called this design a "Compound Gyroplane."

found this http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng ... todyne.php
excellent site BTW

I like the YOSHIYA toy model the best; it is really beautiful.

I think Frédéric Marchand identifies it as Horikawa brand (SH trademark).

hovermd wrote:Tomiyama Vertical Liner for Sears - came in two versions, one with and one without retractable landing gear

1171.JPG

Here is the 1960 advertisement:

Tone wrote:I like the YOSHIYA toy model the best; it is really beautiful.

I think Frédéric Marchand identifies it as Horikawa brand (SH trademark).

I like the Yoshiya toy best, too! It's quite realistic looking when compared to photos of the original.

Great stuff, kids! The Fairey Rotodyne got sooo much attention from the Media at the time! It was going to be the next great leap forward - there would be STOL ports everywhere! Plans were made to have such a STOLport not too far from me, and next to a large commercial development.
NOT!
The thing made way too much noise and only the one prototype was built. Since it came from the UK, all the UK toy makers went wild! It was also a favorite in the mass media, and with the plastic model kit makers. One kit, the Revell, even had a removable side to show all the seats, structure, engines and other important parts. It was a legendary kit and hasn't been re-released in all these decades. They simply don't make kits like this anymore. Mint condition, unbuilt kits of the Revell Rotodyne bring a premium on the collector market. My illustration shows it in the "Revell Master Modeler" stamp issue - collectible items in themselves. Yes - all are parts of my collection.
Additionally both FROG, Airfix and Lincoln (all UK and "empire" companies) had ones in their kit lines.
Airfix re-released their old kit recently, showing that there is still a lot of interest.
I am also including a photo of the one aircraft at a UK air show.