SNCAC NC.2001 Abeille
The SNCAC NC.2001 Abeille (English: Bee) was a single engine, twin intermeshing rotor helicopter designed and built in France in the late 1940s. Three were completed but only one flew, development ending when SNCAC was closed.
Design and development
The design of the Abeille was directed by René Dorand at the helicopter division of SNCAC. An intermeshing rotor layout was chosen instead of a tail rotor design, following the examples of the 1939 Flettner Fl 265 and the Kellet XR-8 of 1944. Its twin, two blade rotors were driven by shafts which leaned out of the fuselage side-by-side. The rotor blades, which began some way from the hub, tapered strongly. Pitch and roll were adjusted from the control column by altering cyclic pitch via a pair of swashplates and yaw by changing the relative collective pitch of the two rotors with the pedals. Forward tilt of the rotor shafts was automatically linked to forward speed. A single lever controlled both the collective pitch and the throttle through an electrical link. The Abeille was powered by a 429 kW (575 hp) Renault 12S, an inverted, liquid-cooled V-12 engine.
SNCAC NC.860
The SNCAC NC.860 (also known as the Aérocentre NC.860) was a French twin-engined development of the NC.853 light aircraft.
Development
The NC.860 was developed from the earlier NC.853 single-engined high-wing monoplane, major changes included a four-seat cabin and the fitting of two 105 hp (78 kW) Walter Minor 4-III engines on a re-designed wing. With the engines mounted on the high-wing the wing span was increased and the NC.860 had a tricycle landing gear.
The NC.860, registered F-WFKJ, first flew 28 March 1949.
Specification
Data from
General characteristics
Performance
References
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Nord NC.850
The Nord NC.850 (originally produced as the Aérocentre NC.850) was a light aircraft developed in France in the late 1940s for use by French aeroclubs but which also saw military use as an airborne observation post.
Development
The NC.850 series was developed from the Aérocentre NC.840 in response to a competition sponsored by the French government under the auspices of the SALS movement to find a domestically-produced machine for club use.Aérocentre's entry was an ungainly high-wing, strut-braced monoplane with a fully enclosed cabin and fixed, tailwheel undercarriage. The fuselage construction was tubular, and the wings had a metal structure, the entire aircraft being skinned in fabric.
The competition was won by the SIPA S.90, but SALS nevertheless also ordered 100 examples of this, the runner-up design. These production examples, designated NC.853, differed from the prototypes in having twin tails, the fins mounted on the ends of the horizontal stabiliser. Only 27 of the order had been completed, however, when Aérocentre was liquidated and its assets bought by Nord. The new owners continued production, with their machines identified with designation NC.853S.
SNCAC
SNCAC, the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Centre, sometimes known as Aérocentre, was a French aircraft manufacturer created by the nationalisation of the Farman Aviation Works and Hanriot firms in 1936. It was liquidated after World War II, with assets distributed between other nationalised firms SNCAN, SNCASO, and SNECMA in 1949.
