CC0 ↗
Hiller Flying Platform
- Year
- 1955
- Creator
- Hiller Advanced Research Division; concept by Charles H. Zimmerman
- Company
- Hiller Helicopters
- Location
- Willow Road, Menlo Park, California
- Room
- Cold War Money ↗
Description
The Hiller Flying Platform is a one-person aircraft with two propellers that turn in opposite directions inside a round duct. The pilot stands on it and steers it with body movements, and it first flew freely on January 27, 1955.
Importance
The Office of Naval Research, which also paid for the Mark III at Stanford, paid Hiller Helicopters to build the platform in secret. It was the first ducted-fan vertical takeoff aircraft to carry a person. The Army ordered larger versions, but they were too heavy for control by body movement.
Interesting fact
Approximately 40 percent of the lift came from air that moved over the curved edge of the duct, not directly from the propellers.
Sources
- Hiller Flying Platform ↗Hiller Aviation Museum · 2024
- US Patent 2,953,321, filed 1956-02-27, granted 1960-09-20 to Hiller Helicopters ↗Google Patents · 1960-09-20
- Helicopter pioneer Stan Hiller dies ↗Palo Alto Online · 2006-04-25