Mystery Aircraft Quiz #12

[Pilawt]

I have some first-hand expertise with this beast. I got as far as soloing it back in 1971 (s/n 3 or 4, I believe), even had my only aircraft accident in it. It was built by a well-known industrial company, not known for building aircraft. The production line was in the same plant where some of its popular consumer goods were made.

It was advertised to have the advantages of both fixed and rotary-wing aircraft; in truth it was beset by the disadvantages of both. It had a 180-hp Lycoming engine with a wooden pusher propeller, an autorotating rotor system modified from that of a Hughes 300 helicopter, and cruised at 95 mph. Capacity was two and a toothbrush. Range was about 150 miles, if you could stand the mind-numbing noise that long. It could not hover; it needed 1200 feet of runway to clear a 50-foot obstacle on takeoff (after a 45-second hold in position on the runway to spin up the rotor), though only a few dozen feet of runway for landing, and could spot-land in a gentle headwind. You could autorotate at zero airspeed with full control, but you would be going straight down, quickly.

Though the brochure featured a studio-staged photo of a paramedic hopping out of one of these to tend to an "injured skier" on a faux snowy slope (who gets to stay behind in the snow: the skier, the paramedic, or the pilot?), the POH prohibited takeoff above 4,000' pressure altitude, prohibited any operation above 8,000' pressure altitude, and for good measure limited takeoff and landing to hard-surface runways.

About sixty of these were ultimately built, an embarrassingly high proportion of which were involved in serious accidents.

What was it???

-- Pilawt

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

It may have been built by McCollouch (sp?) chain saw co.

 

[Pilawt]

It may have been built by McCollouch (sp?) chain saw co.

Yep. I visited the McCulloch factory in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where these aircraft were being built in the same room along with chainsaws.

What was the aircraft called?

-- Pilawt

 

[SCCutler]

Yep. I visited the McCulloch factory in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where these aircraft were being built in the same room along with chainsaws.

What was the aircraft called?

-- Pilawt

Chainsaw Massacre?

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

Chainsaw Massacre?

The name was later shortened to that for the Texas market in particular but, started out as the McColloch ItllrunbetrnRchainsaw-AG.

PS: I've got a McColloch chainsaw & it has always started & run fine.

 

[river_rat]

Yep. I visited the McCulloch factory in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where these aircraft were being built in the same room along with chainsaws.

What was the aircraft called?

-- Pilawt

MC-4

greg

 

[fgcason]

Yep. I visited the McCulloch factory in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where these aircraft were being built in the same room along with chainsaws.

Finally! A company that has integrity! You just have to respect a company that insists on staying within their specialty - Dangerous toys built with exposed extremely dangerous engine driven spinning parts.

 

[Pilawt]

MC-4

No. The model number was the same as that of a very early version of the Piper Cub.

 

[tonycondon]

J-2??

 

[Pilawt]

J-2??

That's it. The McCulloch J-2 Gyroplane. The 'J' comes from the Gyroplane's designer, Drago Jovanovich. Before McCulloch took over it was to have been known as Jovair J-2. Jovanovich was also the primary designer of the Hughes 269 / 300 helicopter series.

(Greg, the MC-4 was a tandem-rotor helicopter that flew in the early '50s, also a Jovanovich design. I misspoke earlier -- McCulloch had built the MC-4 years before the J-2.)

The photo below was taken at Compton, CA, on May 5, 1971. That's me on the left. I was a CFI at a flight school at Long Beach, CA, and our school was the first dealer for J-2's. Though I had no rotary-wing experience, I was being trained to fly it, ultimately to instruct in it. I had soloed it a few times, and my boss and I were on our way over to Compton for more practice.

There was a 5-7 knot left crosswind for my first landing of the day. We touched down at a fast walking speed. When the nosewheel touched down the top-heavy J-2 veered to the left; I overcontrolled and it swerved back to the right, then to the left, then over we went.

The FAA immediately grounded the fleet after my accident. Seems that was the third such accident among the five J-2s that had been built. The other two had happened about two months earlier. The first was another of our school's CFI's, an experienced police helicopter pilot, who was being trained in it. Only four days later a McCulloch factory test pilot "duplicated the malfunction." The NTSB report of that accident (which had not yet been released when my accident happened) concluded:

"PROBABLE CAUSE(S): PERSONNEL - PRODUCTION-DESIGN-PERSONNEL: POOR/INADEQUATE DESIGN -- AIRFRAME - LANDING GEAR: NOSEWHEEL ASSEMBLIES. REMARKS- DESIGN DEFICIENCY IN NOSE WHEEL SELF CENTERING DEVICE"
​

After my accident the FAA mandated installation of a shimmy dampener on the nose gear. So the McCulloch people went to the local Cessna parts store, bought one, and put it on.

A couple of months later they flew me out to Lake Havasu to fly a J-2 with the nosegear mod, but I couldn't tell much difference.

-- Pilawt (proud J-2 survivor)