Filper Research Beta

Filper Research Beta 200A
Role	Light helicopter
Manufacturer	Filper Research Division Filper Corporation
Designer	William F. Orr
First flight	May 26, 1966
Number built	3

Overview

The Filper Research Models Beta 200 and Beta 400 were small tandem, rigid rotor, helicopters intended for the personal helicopter market. Filper Research, located in San Ramon, California, was in existence from 1965 to 1968. The Beta 200 was a two place helicopter and the Beta 400 was a four place helicopter. One Beta 200 prototype and one Beta 400 prototype were manufactured and flown. Several pre-production airframes, which never flew, were also manufactured. Development testing was done in the experimental category. Development was not completed and Filper did not apply for an FAA Type Certificate for either type. There were several other variations on the basic Beta design which were contemplated but these were never developed beyond the conceptual stage. There was a fatal crash of the Beta 400 prototype in November 1967 and the company went out of business in April 1968.

Filper Research was a division of Filper Corporation. Filper Corporation was a agricultural grower and food processing company located in the California central valley. Their products were marketed under the name "F&P", Filper also manufactured food processing equipment such as peach pitters.

Filper Research was formed by Filper corporation as the result of its acquisition of Copperfield corporation, a small helicopter technology, company in 1965.

Rigid Rotor Technology

Historical background

A helicopter rigid rotor system does not have either flapping or lead-lag hinges between the rotor shaft and the rotor blades. . A rigid rotor makes the helicopter very maneuverable, capable of high speed with an extraordinarily wide center of gravity range. Prior to 1960 ,attempts to develop rigid rotor technology by various helicopter manufactures had failed. As a result, rotor systems on then existing machines used either teetering (Bell, Hiller, et al) or articulated rotors (Sikorsky, Piasecki et al). During the early to mid 1960's Lockheed Corporation conducted Research and Development on a series of small helicopters using a revolutionary rigid rotor concept.The Lockheed design was based upon the work of legendary Lockheed dynamicist Ervin Culver with assistance from JFord Johnston. Lockheed produced several prototypes, which are described below.

Lockheed Rigid Rotor helicopters

The first Lockheed rigid rotor prototype was the CL-475 (note, the CL model designation stands for Clarence "Kelly" Johnson from the Skunk Works). The two place CL-475 successfully implemented Lockheed's rigid rotor concept in a conventional single main rotor and tail rotor format. Lockheed then designed a much more aerodynamic rigid rotor prototype, the Model 286, which demonstrated amazing stability and flight characteristics. Finally a prototype compound helicopter was produced by adding a Pratt and Whitney PT-6 turbo jet engine to the Model 286. This was designated the XH-51. The XH-51 was flown to 302mph. The XH-51 success was almost certainly a prime factor in Lockheed being selected in the Army AAFCS AH-56 Cheyenne competition.

Corporate History

Copperfield Corporation

Copperfield Corporation, was formed In 1958,. The principles were William Orr, Bub Orr, JFord Johnston, Ervin Culver. J Eric Rhodes and Jimmie Johnson. All of the principles were recent or current employees of Lockheed Corporation. William Orr, Bub Orr and Jimmie Johnson were from Lockheed Missiles and Space in Sunnyvale, California. JFord Johnston. J Eric Rhodes and Erin Culver were from Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank, California. Johnston and Culver were involved in the Lockheed rigid rotor program from its inception.

In the same time frame that Lockheed was developing its rigid rotor technology, Copperfield independently developed a proof of concept test bed of a small tandem rigid rotor helicopter (N9712C). The test bed had tubular frame with tandem rotors connected by a drive shaft with the engine below . The single pilot sat astride the tubular structure.The test bed was flown (hover only) by Lockheed test pilot Herman 'Fish" Salmon. Copperfield called their rigid rotor design "Gyroflex". The dynamic design was created by Jford Johnston and Ervin Culver, who were Lockheed employees at the time. Copperfield obtained an agreement with Lockheed which allowed it to develop their system without potential issues regarding possible use of Lockheed technology.. The exact details of the agreement are unknown but they were sufficient to allow Copperfield to seek venture capital to develop a helicopter using the Gyroflex technology.

In 1965, Copperfield principle and marketing executive William Orr contacted Filper Corporation as a possible source to capital for further development. Based upon the success of the test bed, Filper acquired development and marketing rights rights to the "Gyroflex" design and the services of some Copperfield personnel. It is not known whether Copperfield was acquired by Filper or just their technology .Filper then established Filper Research. From that point onward all funding for Filper Research was provided by Filper Corporation.

Filper Research

Filper Research started operations in June 1965. It was located in an office building near the Filper Facility in San Ramon, California. The on site personnel that first day were General Manager William F. Orr, Chief Engineer JFord Johnston, Chief Project Engineer J Eric Rhodes, Industrial Designer Jimmie Johnson and John Turner, a mechanical engineer who had graduated the previous Friday from CSULA. This was Mr. Turner's first association with Copperfield.

Bub Orr was not involved at any time during the course of the program, Erv Culver was only peripherally involved. William Orr was the daily interface with Filper and the aviation media..

Shortly thereafter the following persons were added.

• Andrew Androlia- Director of Manufacturing -Hiller
• Bruce Jones - Test Pilot - Hiller
• Bob Kelly - Airframe designer -Lockheed
• William Wada - Drive System Design - Hiller -Arrow Gear
• Jack Baumann- Principle Airframe Designer
• The manufacturing personnel, under the direction of Andy Androlia, were almost exclusively former employees of Hiller Helicopters in Palo Alto. After their unsuccessful bid for the Army contract for the Light Observation Helicopter (LOH) Hiller was bought by Fairchild and moved operations to Maryland. This was fortuitous event since it provided Filper Research with a highly qualified manufacturing team. The LOH competition was won by Hughes Tool Company Aircraft Division with their OH-6A Cayuse. The Hiller LOH competitor(YOH-5) became the FH1000 5 place commercial helicopter. The Bell Helicopter competitor(YOH5) became the highly successful Jet Ranger.

Design and Development

Design concept

As mentioned above, Copperfield had developed a proof-of-concept test bed (N9712C). Using that basic system arrangement, Jimmie Johnson created a design for the Beta 200, a two seat personal helicopter.

The design featured an aerodynamic fuselage, forward and aft pylon mounted rotors and a passenger compartment located at the rear. The engine was mounted below and forward of the passenger compartment. The rotors were interconnected with a drive shaft which was driven by the engine through a clutch and transfer gear box.

The Beta 200 had many innovative design features, such as a fixed wing style control wheel instead of the typical helicopter flight controls. However, some of these presented major development challenges These included:

• A very complex and heavy drive system consisting of two rotor systems, two rotor drive gear boxes, a long rotor interconnecting shaft ,transfer case and centrifugal drive clutch
• Complex mechanical flight controls. The rotors were controlled, not by displacement as in normal helicopters, but by applying forces on the rotors which then responded as large gyroscopes.
• The selection of main rotor blades with zero twist.This was a very significant departure from long established helicopter rotor aerodynamics.This resulted in very poor rotor aerodynamic performance.
• A relatively large overlap between the front and rear rotors

These design choices precluded the very aggressive flight performance and procurement costs presented in marketing materials.

Design Implementation

Design of the proposed production helicopter began in June 1965.

Chief Project Engineer J Eric Rhodes and designer / draftsman John Turner designed the basic Beta 200 airframe structure, assisted by Bob Kelly.and later in 1965 by Jack Baumann, who had previously designed the Baumann Brigadier which later became the Piper Apache

Drive system design was done by Bill Wada.Gear boxes were fabricated by Arrow gear of Downers Grove Illinois.

The Continental IO-360E engine was selected. It was connected to the transfer gearbox by a cooling fan and centrifugal clutch. The cowling very tightly conformed to the engine.

Later in the program the Beta 400 used the Continental IO-20 was used.

Design of pre-production Beta 200A vehicle was completed in May 1966.

Fabrication

Fabrication of the production airframes began in late 1965.The fabrication was conducted in an addition to the Filper plant in San Ramon..

Airframe fabrication included the creation of a "plaster master", fabrication and assembly of contoured skins and bulkheads, frames, stringers etc.Flight controls, dynamic components and electrical wiring were also installed.

Approximately six airframes were ultimately built. Only two,a Beta 200A and a Beta 400A were ever flight worthy.

The first airframe, a Beta 200, which was the flight test article, was assigned FAA tail number N5000F.

Later in the program a second flight test article, designated N5005F, was built. It was the Beta 200A basic airframe which had been extended approximately two feet. The Continental IO-520 was installed. it was designated Beta 400, presumably because it could be four place.

The remaining articles under construction were Beta 200 airframes.None were close to being flight worthy.

Ground Test

In late 1965 the dynamic components, gear boxes, rotor blades etc. became available. In parallel with production fabrication, a steel tube test bed was built and was used to evaluate the drive system, rotor systems and control systems,The design of this test bed was done by John Turner. Also during this period testing of the dynamic components are conducted. These tests showed no significant design issue

end of 10-8-22 edit more to come John Turner

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Flight Test

The Beta 100A led to a larger 200A variant (N5000F) that first flew on May 26, 1966, that was intended for commercial use. offered at $20,000 USD. Filper company began production of 32 variants with an anticipated delivery date of 1967. The 200A was followed by a turbine-engined 300 variant as well as a four-seat, stretched Model 400A and 600A. The first Beta 400A (N5003F) with a fuselage stretched by 36 inches, flew on July 13, 1967.

The three completed prototypes, Filper Helicopter (N9712C), Filper Beta 200A (N5000F) and Filper Beta 400A (N5003F) began a testing regime at Livermore Municipal Airport, Livermore, California. All three helicopters crashed, with a fatal accident taking place on November 7, 1967 that occurred when a rotor failed during a high-speed test. The test pilot on loan from North American Aviation died in the crash while another test pilot was injured in a second accident.

Only three or four of the 32 commercial versions were ever completed, with none of them receiving certification from the Federal Aviation Administration. A further development, the Beta 600A, was cancelled and the helicopter production line was subsequently shut down in 1969. The Filper Research division terminated in the same year with the company concentrating on its manufacture of peach-pitting machinery and its canning operations. The Filper company was absorbed in a buy-out by DiGiorgio Corporation in 1976.

Variants

Filper Helicopter (N9712C)

Two-seat prototype with a 210 hp Continental IO-360E engine, one built and flown for evaluation and testing.

Fliper test rig

Single-seat. open tubular frame "proof-of-concept" test rig, one built and test flown.

Filper Beta 200A (N5000F)

Two-seat prototype with a 210 hp Continental IO-360E engine, one built and test flown and intended as a pattern design for commercial production.

Filper Beta 300

Prototype six-seat version powered by a 317 shp Allison 250-C18 turbine engine; not built.

Filper Beta 400A (N5003F)

Four-seat prototype with a 250 hp Continental IO-520 engine, one built and test flown and intended as a pattern design for commercial production.

Filper Beta 600A

Four-seat, projected advanced 400A variant with a 250 hp Continental IO-520 engine; not built.

Specifications (Filper Beta 200A)

Data from

General characteristics

• Crew: two
• Capacity: two (three-blade rotor)
• Length: 17 ft 6 in (5.33 m)
• Height: 9 ft 2 in (2.8 m)
• Empty weight: 1,000 lb (453 kg)
• Gross weight: 1,700 lb (771 kg)
• Powerplant: 1 × 210 hp Continental IO-360E piston engine , 200 hp (147.1 kW)
• Main rotor diameter: 2 × 20 ft 5 in (6.22 m)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 150 mph (241 km/h, 130 kn)
• Range: 400 mi (642 km, 350 nmi)

References

Bibliography

• Andrade, John. U.S.Military Aircraft Designations and Serials since 1909. Hinckley, UK: Midland Counties Publications, 1979, ISBN 0-904597-22-9.
• The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985). London: Orbis Publishing, 1985.
• Simpson, R. Airlife's Helicopter and Rotorcraft. London: Crowood Press Ltd., 1998. ISBN 978-1-8531-0968-3.

External links

• Filper Beta 200 1966 history
• Filper Beta 400 1967 history
• Filper Beta 200 history