Observations in Flight of the Region of Stalled Flow Over the Blades of the Kellett YG-1B Tapered-Blade Autogiro Rotor

In conjunction with a series of tests requested by the Army Air corps on a new set of tapered rotor blades, of NACA 230 series section and built for the Kellett YG-1B autogiro, it was convenient to supplement previous studies of the region or stalled flow on rotors by making photographic observations of the flow over the blades in flight. These observations are described in this report. It is shown that the maximum radius stalled on the new rotor increases more rapidly with tip-speed ratio than was true on the rectangular-blade, Gottingen 606 section rotor previously tested on the same ship, though the increase in importance of the stalled region is not as decisive as consideration of the change in section would suggest. The increased loss in the stalled region is felt to be at least a contributing cause in the failure of the new blades to Increase the top speed of the machine.