Bensen B-7 Explained
The
Bensen B-7 was a small
rotor kite developed by
Igor Bensen in the United States in the 1950s and marketed for home building. It was a refined to be a slightly larger version of the
B-6, replacing the skids with a tricycle undercarriage, and adding a single large fin to the rear of the aircraft.
The B-7 was first towed aloft on 17 June 1955, and on 6 December that year, Bensen flew a motorized version designated the B-7M, a fully autonomous autogyro. The prototype B-7M crashed three days later with Bensen at the controls. Although the machine was soon repaired and in the air again, the incident set Bensen to work on further refinements to the design that would eventually lead to the B-8.
Variants
Data from: Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1958-59
- B-7:The basic gyro-glider
B-7B Gyro-boat: A Gyro-glider mounted on a standard sailing dinghy hull.
B-7W Hydro-glider :The B-7W "Hydroglider" was a gyrocopter designed to be towed from a motorboat at 10-20 mph. The B-7W was tested at Cypress Gardens Florida in 1955. It was marketed to be a sport vehicle, with practical uses in fish or submarine spotting. The floats were modified from a Republic Seabee.[1]
B-7M: A powered version of the B-7 with a Nelson H-59 4-cylinder 2-stroke horizontally-opposed engine driving a pusher propeller, mounted behind the pilot.
Further reading
- Book: Charnov, Bruce . From Autogiro to Gyroplane: The Amazing Survival of an Aviation Technology . Praeger . 2003 . 226.
External links
Notes and References
- Experimenter. November 1955. The Cover Story.
