Flettner Fl 185

The Flettner Fl 185 was an experimental helicopter by Anton Flettner.

The helicopter was developed in 1936 with the support of the Navy. He owned a BMW Bramo Sh 14A radial engine at the front, (according to other sources, a Siemens - Halske SH 14A ), which was forcibly cooled its own small propeller. This took about 10% of the engine power of 140 hp. The engine drove next to the 12 -meters- main rotor has two smaller propellers on outriggers next to the fuselage. This worried by differing propeller rotation to ( in modern helicopters the tail rotor or counter-rotating main rotors caused two ) torque balance the main rotor.

In forward flight, only the two side vertically oriented propeller are driven while the main rotor is marched with the autorotation condition. The transfer case was installed in the front part of the cockpit.

The suspension consisted of a nose wheel, two smaller training wheels on the lateral arms and a tail skid at the rear. It was made ​​only a prototype.

The Fl 185 completed only some flights close to the ground, the development was abandoned in favor of the Flettner Fl 265.

Curiously, the end of the 1960s by VFW was built with the H3 a helicopter, which had a virtually identical drive principle. This machine did not however over the experimental stage.