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Piasecki Helicopter
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===Tandem rotor designs=== [[File:XHRP-1 Piasecki NAN4 47.jpg|thumb|right|XHRP-1 during flight trials (1946)]] With the successful demonstration of the PV-2, Piasecki convinced the [[United States Navy]] to fund the development of a follow-on prototype, signing a contract on January 1, 1944;<ref name=Vertical-legacy/> this marked the start of the design and sale of a series of [[tandem rotor]] helicopters to the Navy. The resulting [[Piasecki PV-3|PV-3]] became the world's first successful tandem rotor design. The PV-3 first flew on March 7, 1945 and bore the Navy designation XHRP-X; it was larger and capable of lifting more than the contemporary Sikorsky designs.<ref name=NYT-08/><ref name=HAI-vertical/> Because P-V Engineering lacked the capital to fund production, the company was reorganized and renamed to the '''Piasecki Helicopter Corporation''' in [[1946 in aviation|1946]],<ref name=NYT-08/> with [[Laurance Rockefeller]] and [[A. Felix du Pont Jr.]] taking a controlling interest of 51% in exchange for $500,000.<ref name=Vertical-legacy/> After constructing two more prototypes (designated XHRP-1),<ref name=Vertical-legacy/> the PV-3 would go into production as the [[Piasecki HRP-1|HRP-1]] in [[1947 in aviation|1947]].<ref name=HAI-vertical/> The HRP-1 was commonly nicknamed the "flying banana" because of the upward angle of the aft fuselage which ensured the large rotors did not hit each other in flight. The nickname would later be applied to other Piasecki tandem-rotor helicopters of similar design. An evolutionary follow-on design to the HRP-1, designated HRP-2, used an all-metal skin and switched crew seating to side-by-side instead of tandem; however, the limited power meant only five were built, all for the Coast Guard.<ref name=Vertical-legacy/> In 1949, Piasecki provided the [[Piasecki H-21|H-21 Workhorse]] to the [[United States Air Force]], an improved version of the HRP-2 with a more powerful [[Wright R-1820 Cyclone]] radial engine.<ref name=Vertical-legacy/> Piasecki's tandem-rotor helicopters flew higher than competing single rotor designs, and offered a smoother ride. At approximately the same time the HRP-1 and HRP-2 were being developed, the Navy commissioned Piasecki to design a smaller tandem-rotor utility helicopter; the resulting prototype, which Piasecki called the PV-14, was designated XHJP-1.<ref name=Vertical-legacy/> These went into production as the [[Piasecki HUP Retriever|HUP-1]] (PV-18), with the first variants delivered to both the Navy and the [[United States Army]] (as the H-25) in 1949; in total, 339 were delivered to the militaries of the United States, Canada, and France by 1954.<ref name=Vertical-legacy/> The HUP was designed with overlapping main rotor blades, which reduced the size so they could be carried on aircraft carrier elevators.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://americanhelicopter.museum/aircraft/piasecki-pv-14-hup-2-retriever |title=Piasecki PV-14 / HUP-2 Retriever |publisher=American Helicopter Museum & Education Center |accessdate=13 April 2020}}</ref>
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